Sprout Social, which provides social media management software, has acquired Repustate, a sentiment analysis and natural language processing company. Sprout said the acquisition will increase the power, breadth and automation of its social listening, messaging and customer care capabilities with added sentiment analysis, natural language processing (NLP) and artificial-intelligence (AI).

Founded in 2010, Repustate uses AI-powered semantic technology to model sentiment analysis, text analytics and enterprise search solutions. Repustate reads and analyzes text and video content natively, transforming data through natural language processing, artificial intelligence and machine learning into business intelligence.

“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,” said Justyn Howard, Sprout Social’s CEO and Co-founder. “We believe the addition of Repustate’s AI, domain expertise and talented team will accelerate our technology roadmap across core Sprout products, including aspect-based and industry sentiment within our social listening capabilities and enhanced functionality for inbox messaging and social customer care.”