Qualtrics
| Company type | Private company |
|---|---|
| Industry | Experience management software |
| Founded | 2002 |
| Founder | Scott M. Smith, Ryan Smith, Jared Smith, Stuart Orgill |
| Headquarters | Seattle and Provo , United States |
Area served | Worldwide |
Key people | Ryan Smith (co-founder), Brad Anderson (president as of 2021) |
| Products | Qualtrics XM Platform, customer experience solutions, employee experience solutions, strategy & research solutions, Qualtrics Edge suite |
| Revenue | $1.46 billion (2022) |
| −$1.05 billion (2022) | |
| −$1.06 billion (2022) | |
Number of employees | 5600 (2022) |
| Parent | Silver Lake (since June 2023) |
| Website | www |
Qualtrics, LLC is a U.S.-based firm specializing in experience management, with dual headquarters located in Seattle, Washington and Provo, Utah. Established in 2002 by Scott M. Smith, Ryan Smith, Jared Smith, and Stuart Orgill, the company offers a cloud-hosted subscription service for experience management, officially launched in March 2017. While its software has been extensively utilized in academic survey research, since 2012 it has increasingly targeted enterprise clients. By 2025, Qualtrics is prioritizing data acquisition and the integration of agentic AI technologies.
On November 11, 2018, SAP revealed plans to acquire Qualtrics for $8 billion, finalizing the transaction on January 23, 2019. Qualtrics subsequently made its public debut on the Nasdaq stock exchange on January 28, 2021. In March 2023, a consortium led by Silver Lake agreed to take the company private once again. This transaction was completed on June 28, 2023, with Silver Lake and its co-investors purchasing all outstanding shares.
Among Qualtrics' principal offerings are the Qualtrics XM Platform alongside tailored solutions for customer experience, employee experience, strategy & research, and the Qualtrics Edge suite. In 2022, the firm reported revenues totaling $1.46 billion but recorded operating losses of $1.05 billion and net losses amounting to $1.06 billion. The workforce numbered around 5,600 employees at the end of that year.
Funding and valuation
In 2012, Qualtrics secured $70 million in Series A funding from Sequoia Capital and Accel, marking the largest joint investment those firms had made at that point. Later, in September 2014, these investors led a $150 million Series B round with participation from Insight Partners, which valued the business at $1 billion—a milestone for a company based in Utah.
Filing for IPO
On October 19, 2018, Qualtrics submitted an S-1 registration statement to raise $200 million through an initial public offering of Class B shares. The company intended to list on NASDAQ under the ticker symbol "XM," reflecting its flagship XM Platform. However, this IPO was withdrawn after SAP announced its acquisition plans in November 2018.
Acquisitions
In May 2016, Qualtrics expanded its analytics capabilities by acquiring Statwing, a San Francisco startup specializing in statistical analysis software. Two years later, in April 2018, it acquired Delighted—a company serving over 1,500 clients—to enhance its customer feedback solutions.
October 2021 saw Qualtrics complete a $1.125 billion all-stock acquisition of Clarabridge, a Virginia-based provider of omnichannel conversational analytics software. The company's largest deal occurred in October 2025 with the $6.75 billion purchase of Indiana-based healthcare technology firm Press Ganey, including its debt obligations—substantially increasing Qualtrics’ footprint in healthcare data and analytics.
Acquisition by SAP SE
In November 2018, SAP announced its plan to acquire Qualtrics for $8 billion in an all-cash transaction backed by €7 billion in financing. This marked SAP's second-largest acquisition following its $8.3 billion purchase of Concur in 2014. The acquisition was finalized on January 23, 2019.
Initial public offering (IPO)
On July 26, 2020, SAP revealed its intention to list Qualtrics on the U.S. stock market, highlighting Qualtrics's impressive growth exceeding 40% in cloud revenue during 2019. SAP planned to maintain majority ownership following the offering. Industry experts pointed out potential challenges due to differing corporate cultures between SAP and the more nimble, younger Qualtrics. Qualtrics debuted on Nasdaq on January 28, 2021, with an opening price of $41.85 per share, reaching a peak above $57 soon after, before stabilizing within a $30 to $40 range through mid-2021. By June 2022, the share price had dropped to approximately $13.
In January 2021, Brad Anderson, formerly of Microsoft, joined Qualtrics as president overseeing products and services.
In May 2022, Qualtrics announced its plan to utilize Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud infrastructure based in London during the latter half of 2022. This move aimed to provide local access to its XM/OS platform through AWS’s London region. Additionally, the company disclosed plans to establish a London office and a customer experience center.
Divestment by SAP SE
In March 2023, a consortium of investors—including private equity firm Silver Lake, CPP Investment Board, and co-founder Ryan Smith—agreed to purchase Qualtrics from SAP in an all-cash transaction valued at $12.5 billion.
Silver Lake acquisition
Silver Lake initially committed more than $500 million to Qualtrics during its 2021 IPO. In March 2023, Silver Lake announced its intention to take Qualtrics private and finalized the acquisition by June 2023. This $12.5 billion transaction represented Silver Lake’s largest investment since its inception nearly 25 years ago.
Alongside Silver Lake, Accel—a global venture capital firm and early investor in Qualtrics—pledged $500 million. Merchant bank BDT & MSD Partners and DFO Management, the family investment office of Michael Dell, each contributed $250 million, adding up to an additional $500 million in total capital commitments.