Sprinkles Cupcakes was sold to a private equity firm in 2012, but the sale price was never publicly disclosed.

What is known about the sale?

  • Founder Candace Nelson has said she sold Sprinkles Cupcakes to a private equity group in 2012.
  • News coverage and reference sources describe the buyer as a private equity firm (often identified as KarpReilly Capital Partners), but none of these reports include a purchase price or deal valuation.
  • Because the company was privately held and the buyer is a private equity firm, they were not required to publish the transaction amount, so the exact figure remains undisclosed.

Why you mostly see “undisclosed amount”

  • Many private acquisitions, especially of mid-sized consumer brands like Sprinkles, are done under confidentiality agreements that keep deal terms out of public filings. This is standard practice in private equity transactions.
  • As of late 2025, media pieces discussing Sprinkles’ sudden closure still repeat that it was sold to private equity in 2012, but they continue to state or imply that the amount was not made public.

Bottom line

  • There is no reliable public number for “how much Sprinkles was sold for.” Any specific dollar figure circulating on forums or social media would be speculative rather than sourced from official or reputable financial disclosures.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.