Who owns Smartsheet? Ownership structure explained (2026)

Smartsheet is one of the larger names in enterprise work management software, a category it helped define with a spreadsheet-style interface for running projects, workflows, and programs at scale. It grew inside a broader subscription-software boom, the same wave charted in these SaaS industry statistics. For most of its life the ownership question had a simple public-market answer: anyone could buy shares on the New York Stock Exchange. That changed in early 2025.

In January 2025, two of the biggest firms in private equity, Blackstone and Vista Equity Partners, completed an all-cash acquisition that removed Smartsheet from public markets. The company that had crossed $1 billion in annual recurring revenue as a public business now sits inside private-equity portfolios, with its financials no longer disclosed to the public and its board controlled by its new owners.

Understanding who owns Smartsheet today means tracing three chapters: the founders and venture backers who built it, the public shareholders who owned it from 2018 to 2025, and the private-equity buyers who control it now.

Smartsheet was founded in 2005 in Bellevue, Washington, by Brent Frei, Maria Colacurcio, and Eric Brown. Frei, who had previously co-founded Onyx Software, helped start the company and served as an executive for more than a decade before retiring from the board in June 2024. Mark Mader joined in 2006 and became chief executive, a role he held until his retirement in September 2025.

The core product is a cloud-based work management platform. It presents work in a familiar grid that looks like a spreadsheet but functions as a database for tasks, projects, and automated workflows, with dashboards, forms, and reporting layered on top. Smartsheet sells primarily to enterprises on a subscription basis, and its land-and-expand model has pushed it deep into large organizations.

The most recent full year Smartsheet reported as a public company was fiscal 2024, which ended January 31, 2024. Revenue reached $958.3 million, up 25% year over year, with subscription revenue of $904.0 million. Annual recurring revenue crossed $1 billion for the first time, and non-GAAP operating income was about $101 million, an 11% operating margin, the kind of figure an EBITDA calculator helps translate into a profitability picture. The take-private deal that followed valued the company at roughly $8.4 billion.

Smartsheet is privately held. It traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker SMAR from its April 2018 IPO until January 2025, when Blackstone and Vista Equity Partners completed their acquisition and delisted the stock. Public shareholders were cashed out at $56.50 per share, and the company no longer files financial reports with the SEC or reports quarterly earnings.

The founders no longer hold controlling stakes. As with any all-cash take-private, every outstanding share, including those held by founders, executives, and early employees, was converted into the right to receive $56.50 in cash when the deal closed. Brent Frei had already left the board in June 2024, before the buyout was announced. Precise post-buyout equity arrangements for management are not publicly disclosed, which is typical once a company leaves public markets, though private-equity deals commonly roll a portion of executive and management holdings into the new private entity.

Before its IPO, Smartsheet raised more than $120 million from venture investors. The rounds below trace the key financings and the public listing that followed.

The Series F round in 2017 also drew participation from Madrona Venture Group, Sutter Hill Ventures, and new investor Summit Partners.

Insight Partners (formerly Insight Venture Partners) was Smartsheet's largest venture backer and led multiple rounds. At the time of the IPO, its pre-offering stake was disclosed at roughly 32%. Madrona Venture Group, the Seattle-based firm active across the Pacific Northwest technology scene, held about 28% before the offering. Sutter Hill Ventures held roughly 5%. These three firms were the dominant pre-IPO owners, and their holdings, along with all other public shares, were bought out in the 2025 take-private.

Today the controlling owners are Blackstone and Vista Equity Partners. Blackstone is one of the world's largest alternative-asset managers, and Vista is a private-equity firm focused specifically on enterprise software. They acquired Smartsheet through funds they manage, making them the company's ultimate owners. Sizing a deal like this rests on the same fundamentals a business valuation calculator uses to translate revenue and growth into an enterprise value.

From 2018 to 2025, Smartsheet operated with the standard public-company structure: a single class of common stock traded on the NYSE, a public board of directors, and quarterly SEC reporting. Michael Gregoire chaired the board in the later public years. That structure ended at the January 2025 close. Governance now sits with the private-equity owners, and Smartsheet's board is controlled by Blackstone and Vista rather than by public shareholders.

The people who direct Smartsheet today answer to its private-equity owners.

Rajeev Singh became chief executive officer on October 6, 2025. He succeeded Sunny Gupta, who had served as acting CEO since July 2025 and continues as executive chair of the board. Singh is a longtime enterprise-software leader who previously co-founded Concur and led Accolade, and his appointment marks the first permanent CEO of the private-equity era.

Mark Mader, who led Smartsheet as CEO from 2006, retired at the end of September 2025 after helping steer the transition. He also stepped down from the board. Co-founder Brent Frei left the board in June 2024, ahead of the buyout.

Ultimate control rests with Blackstone and Vista Equity Partners. As the owners, they appoint the board and set strategy, so the executive team runs the business against private-equity ownership rather than a public shareholder base. Specific board membership beyond the executive chair is not publicly disclosed now that the company is private.

The take-private drew investor litigation. A stockholder filed a proposed class action against Smartsheet and its former leadership, alleging the company understated its performance in the run-up to the deal and repurchased its own stock at prices below what the acquirers ultimately paid, which the suit argues let the sale proceed at an unfairly low price. Related investor alerts and class-action filings remained active into 2026. The claims are allegations, and Smartsheet has not been found liable; take-private deals of this size commonly attract this kind of shareholder suit.

Going private removed Smartsheet's obligation to publish detailed financials. Public shareholders and customers no longer see quarterly revenue, margins, or customer metrics, which limits outside visibility into the company's health. This is a normal consequence of private-equity ownership, but it is a real change for a company that had reported transparently as a public business.

Large take-privates are typically financed partly with debt loaded onto the acquired company, and private-equity owners tend to press for margin expansion and cost discipline. The specific capital structure of the Smartsheet deal is not fully public, but the general model raises the stakes on profitability and free cash flow, which can shape decisions on pricing, headcount, and product investment.

Ownership sets the scoreboard a company plays against. For most of its history Smartsheet answered to public-market investors focused on subscription growth, net revenue retention, and a path to profitability. Under Blackstone and Vista, the company answers to private-equity owners with a defined hold period and a return target, which usually means a sharper focus on margins, efficient growth, and eventual exit, whether through a sale or a return to public markets.

The change also concentrates control. On the NYSE, ownership was dispersed across institutional and retail investors, and no single holder dictated strategy. Now two firms own the company outright and appoint its board, so major decisions on capital, acquisitions, and leadership run through them. The rapid leadership transition, from Mark Mader to an acting CEO to Rajeev Singh within a year of the close, reflects how quickly private-equity owners can reshape the top of a business.

For customers, private ownership is a mixed signal. Vista in particular specializes in enterprise software and often invests in the products it buys, which can mean continued development. At the same time, private-equity discipline can bring price increases and tighter packaging as owners work to expand margins. Enterprise buyers weighing Smartsheet against rivals, an exercise a competitive analysis template can structure, now face a vendor whose priorities are set behind closed doors rather than disclosed each quarter.

The contrast with peers is instructive. A widely held public company like Salesforce and its dispersed ownership answers to thousands of shareholders, while a still venture-backed rival shows up in how Airtable is owned, a private cap table of founders and VCs. Smartsheet's concentrated private-equity structure sits apart from both. Its path shows how a profitable, billion-dollar-revenue software company can still be pulled off public markets when private-equity buyers see room to run the business harder.

Rajeev Singh has been CEO of Smartsheet since October 6, 2025. He succeeded Sunny Gupta, who had served as acting CEO from July 2025 and remains executive chair of the board. Singh previously co-founded Concur and led Accolade.

No. Smartsheet was taken private in January 2025 by Blackstone and Vista Equity Partners and delisted from the New York Stock Exchange. It had traded under the ticker SMAR since its 2018 IPO, but its shares are no longer available to the public.

Smartsheet was founded in 2005 in Bellevue, Washington, by Brent Frei, Maria Colacurcio, and Eric Brown. Mark Mader joined in 2006 and served as CEO for nearly two decades until his retirement in September 2025.

Blackstone and Vista Equity Partners own Smartsheet outright following their 2025 take-private acquisition. Before the buyout, its largest shareholders were the venture firms Insight Partners, Madrona Venture Group, and Sutter Hill Ventures, along with public-market institutional investors.

The all-cash take-private valued Smartsheet at approximately $8.4 billion. Shareholders received $56.50 per share, a premium of about 41% to the company's pre-announcement trading price. The deal was announced in September 2024 and closed on January 22, 2025.

Smartsheet raised more than $120 million in venture funding before going public in 2018, including a $26 million Series D in 2012, a $35 million Series E in 2014, and a $52.1 million Series F in 2017. Its April 2018 IPO raised roughly $150 million at $15.00 per share.