Selling a Canada-based NLP provider to a Nasdaq-listed social media software company.

The Mandate

Repustate was an innovative sentiment analysis and natural language processing (NLP) company based in Toronto, Canada. 

It was founded in 2010 and used AI-powered semantic technology to model sentiment analysis, text analytics, and enterprise search solutions. It transformed data into business intelligence through NLP, AI, and machine learning. 

Slator’s Role

More than a decade later, when the Founder was preparing for an exit, Repustate mandated Slator and our trusted partner Maveria to run a professional M&A sell-side process. 

We advised the seller throughout our structured process, working closely with Repustate Founder and CEO Martin Ostrovsky. 

We prepared process documentation and screened and contacted potential buyers. We then managed and coordinated the closing with the ultimate buyer, Sprout Social, a Nasdaq-listed and industry-leading provider of social media management software. 

The Outcome

Repustate and Sprout Social completed the transaction successfully, and announced the acquisition in Q1 2023. 

Sprout Social said that the acquisition “will increase the power, breadth, and automation of social listening, messaging, and customer care capabilities with added sentiment analysis, natural language processing (NLP), and artificial-intelligence (AI).” 

“Sentiment analysis and artificial intelligence are key to managing social media at scale and, with the addition of Repustate technology, we’re excited to bring an even deeper set of capabilities to our customers.” — Justyn Howard, CEO and Co-Founder, Sprout Social