Sprout Social Raises Funding, Offers Business Tools For The Social Web

Sprout Social, a provider of social relationship management services not be confused with Sprout Inc, Sprout or Sprout, has received a Series A round of funding from Lightbank, the recently launched investment vehicle created by Groupon founders Eric Lefkofsky and Brad Keywell.

The terms of the investment deal were not disclosed, but Lightbank typically invests less than $1 million.

Sprout Social, which is currently in closed beta, says it will use the capital infusion for its formal launch later this Spring, as well as to expand its service offering.

The startup markets a platform that allows businesses to connect to customers and monitor key metrics and the overall competitive landscape using social media tools. The Sprout Social platform, featuring the Social Dashboard, integrates with social networks such as Facebook, Twitter, Yelp, LinkedIn and Foursquare and includes lead generation, business intelligence, offer and promotion distribution services, as well as brand monitoring and analytics.

For Lightbank, this is the third investment after Where I’ve Been and Poggled.