klout

What klout does

Klout, founded in 2008 and headquartered in San Francisco, is a social media analytics application that measures and ranks its users according to online social influence. The company's core product produces a quantified "Klout Score" derived from social media signals across multiple platforms, positioning Klout as a consumer-facing influence measurement service and an influencer identification tool for brands and agencies. Its technology stack aggregates and weighs engagement, network, and content distribution signals from supported social networks to compute per-user influence metrics.

The business model centered on a free consumer-facing app for end users, complemented by brand-side monetization through the Klout Perks marketplace and influencer-marketing use cases aimed at advertisers seeking to reach high-scoring users. Klout did not disclose enterprise pricing or a self-serve SaaS offering in the input; revenue appears to have been generated primarily through brand partnerships and marketing integrations rather than seat-based subscriptions.

Across its operating history Klout raised approximately $40 million in venture funding, with notable investors including Kleiner Perkins (lead investor in Series B and C), IVP, Mayfield Fund, Greycroft, ff Venture Capital, Idealab, Venrock, and Zelkova Ventures. In February 2012 the company extended its product surface via the acquisition of Blockboard. By the August 2013 reporting window a subsequent round is recorded with DNX Ventures and ff Venture Capital but no disclosed proceeds, suggesting a later-stage recapitalization rather than a primary growth financing.

Name

klout

Legal name

Khoros, LLC

Website

https://klout.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2001

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

101–250 employees

Short description

Klout is a San Francisco-based social media analytics application founded in 2008 that measures and ranks users by online social influence, serving consumers with personal influence scores and brands with influencer identification and marketing partnership tools.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Social Media Analytics

NAICS

Marketing Research and Public Opinion Polling (541910), Information (51)

SIC

Services-Computer Programming, Data Processing, Etc. (7370)

akta.pro primary industry

Public Relations Measurement, Analytics & Monitoring (BPAFADAL)

Keywords

• Social influence scoring
• Social media analytics
• Influence ranking platform
• Online influence measurement
• Consumer analytics software

Headquarters

HQ city

San Francisco

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Software

Cost components

Technology or R&D, Personnel, Marketing or Sales, Infrastructure

Revenue model

1. Enterprise SaaS Subscription: Platform subscription model for enterprise customers (Fortune 500 brands) accessing Aurora AI and Iris AI platforms. The company serves large enterprises with 20+ years of track record.

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels1 record

Marketing channels7 records

Core offering

Klout is an application that measures and ranks its users according to online social influence by using social media analytics. The product was a consumer-facing influence-scoring platform that aggregated social media signals to produce a single quantified measure of a user's online influence.

Product overview

Khoros is an AI-powered customer engagement platform offering two AI-native products: Aurora AI (community platform) and Iris AI (social media management platform). Both products share a unified intelligence layer that learns customers, brand voice, and business to make every touchpoint smarter. The platform orchestrates customer conversations across social channels, community forums, and support threads, with over 300+ enterprise communities generating billions of customer interactions annually.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Aurora AI: AI-native community platform for customer self-service, knowledge synthesis, and community analytics.
• Iris AI

Products and services

• Klout Consumer-facing application that measures and ranks users according to their online social influence by aggregating and analyzing social media data across platforms. Targeted at individual social media users wanting a single, standardized measure of their online influence.

Quantifiable outcome

• $500M+ annual support costs saved through self-service
• +3 more outcomes

Segments5 records

Ideal customer profiles1 record

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

AI capability6 records

Feature3 records

Scale indicators5 records

Recent moves5 records

Expansion highlights2 records

Broad incumbents

• Cision: Cision is the largest PR, earned media, and influencer marketing software provider, owning Brandwatch and PR Newswire. It operates a broader portfolio that encompasses Klout's historical category.
• Sprout Social: Sprout Social is an established social media management and analytics platform serving mid-market and enterprise customers. It competes with the Khoros parent (which now owns the Klout IP) and represents the broader category Klout's influence scoring once complemented.
• Meltwater: Meltwater is a global media intelligence and social analytics company serving PR, communications, and marketing teams. It serves adjacent use cases to Klout's historical influence measurement offering.
• Brandwatch: Brandwatch (now part of Cision) is a consumer intelligence and social listening platform. It overlaps with Khoros/Klout in social analytics and influence measurement at enterprise scale.
• Hootsuite: Hootsuite is a leading social media management platform with embedded analytics and influence metrics. It serves the same enterprise and brand customers that historically constituted the commercial outlet for Klout's influence data.

Others

• Khoros: Khoros is the current parent/operating entity for the Klout brand (via Lithium Technologies). It provides the AI-native customer engagement platform on which any Klout revival would be built, making it the most operationally comparable entity to the subject company in its current state.

Direct peers

• Kred: Kred was Klout's most direct historical competitor, offering social influence scoring (Kred Score) and influencer marketing tools. Both companies pioneered the third-party influence measurement category in the early 2010s and competed for the same brand and consumer mindshare.

Emerging players

• Traackr: Traackr is an influencer marketing platform that uses data-driven scoring to identify and vet influencers, closely aligned with Klout's broader mission of quantifying and ranking social influence for marketing purposes.
• Talkwalker: Talkwalker provides AI-powered social listening and analytics with consumer intelligence applications. It is a relevant peer for any revival of Klout's influence-scoring thesis, particularly for the cross-language social listening capability.
• Onalytica: Onalytica (acquired PeerIndex) provides influencer identification and influence scoring for B2B brands. Its acquisition of PeerIndex makes it a direct conceptual successor to Klout in the B2B influence measurement niche.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat3 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/klout
• YouTubeyoutube.com/c/khoros
• Facebookfacebook.com/kloutfb
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/klout
• Instagraminstagram.com/KhorosLLC

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Funding overview

Funding rounds6 records

Investors16 records

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A1 record

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about klout