Slack is raising $400M+ with a post-money valuation of $7B or more
Slack — the app that lets coworkers and others in professional circles chat with each other and call in data from hundreds of integrated apps in the name of getting more work done (or at least procrastinating in an entertaining way) — has been on a growth tear in the last few years, most recently passing 8 million daily active users, 3 million of them paying. Now, the company is planning to capitalise on that with some more funding.
TechCrunch has learned that Slack is raising another round, this time in the region of $400 million or possibly more, with a post-money valuation of at least $7 billion — adding a whopping $2 billion on top of the company’s last valuation in September 2017, when SoftBank led a $250 million round at a $5.1 billion valuation.
We’ve heard from multiple sources that a new investor, General Atlantic, is leading this round, with possibly another new backer, Dragoneer, also in the mix. It’s not clear which other investors might be involved; the company counts no less than 41 other backers on its cap table already, according to PitchBook. (You might even say Several People Are Funding…) We also don’t know whether this round has closed.
At $400 million, this would make it Slack’s biggest round to date. That size underscores a few different things.
First, it points to the existing opportunity in enterprise messaging. Consumerisation has taken hold, and apps that let users easily start and carry on a mix of serious and diverting conversations, infused with GIFs or whatever data they might need from other applications, are vying to replace other ways that people communicate in the workplace, such as email, phone conferences and in-person chats, even when people are in the same vicinity as each other. With consumer messaging apps like WhatsApp topping 1.5 billion users, there’s plenty of room for enterprise messaging to grow.
Second, the round and valuation emphasize Slack’s position as a leader in this area. While there were other enterprise social networking apps in existence before Slack first launched in 2013 — Yammer, Hipchat and Socialcast among them — nothing had struck a chord quite as Slack did. “Things have been going crazy”, was how co-founder and CEO Stewart Butterfield described it to me when Slack exited beta: teams trialling it were seeing usage from “every single team member, every day.”
That growth pace has continued. Today, the company counts 70,000 paid teams including Capital One, eBay, IBM, 21st Century Fox, and 65 percent of Fortune 100 companies among its bigger users; and with customers in 100 countries, half of its DAUs are outside North America (UK, Japan, Germany, France and India are its biggest international markets).
But thirdly — and this could be key when considering how this funding will be used — Slack is not the only game in town.
Software giant Microsoft has launched Teams, and social networking behemoth Facebook has Workplace. Using their respective dominance in enterprise software and social mechanics, these two have stolen a march on picking up some key customer wins among businesses that have opted for products that are more natural fits with what their employees were already using. Microsoft reported 200,000 paying organizations earlier this year, and Facebook has snagged some very large customers like Walmart.
Slack’s bottom-up distribution strategy could give it an edge against these larger companies and their broader but more complex products. The lightweight nature of Slack’s messaging-first approach allows it more easily be inserted into a company’s office stack. Nearly every type of employee needs office messaging, creating the potential for Slack to serve as an identity layer for enterprise software, not to mention the platform where not only people, but the information that exists in separate apps, converges. Its own Slack Fund invests in potential companies that plug in, as the company hopes to build an ecosystem of partners that can fill in missing functionality.
Alongside dozens of other, smaller rivals offering comparative mixes of tools, it’s no surprise that last month Slack tightened up its bootlaces to take on the role of consolidator, snapping up IP and shutting down Hipchat and Stride from Atlassian, with the latter taking a stake in Slack as part of the deal.
Slack, which has a relatively modest 1,000+ employees, has ruled out an IPO this year, so this latest round will help it shore up cash in the meantime to continue growing, and competing.
Contacted for this story, Slack said that it does not comment on rumors or speculation.
Source: techcrunch
Latest Jobs
-
- Senior Presales Consultant | Managed Security Services | London
- London
- N/A
-
Senior Presales Consultant – Managed Security Services Location: London-commutable (Hybrid) A well-established cyber consultancy is seeking a Senior Presales Consultant to drive growth across its managed security services / advisory portfolio. This hybrid role bridges commercial and technical expertise supporting solution design, shaping customer proposals, and guiding conversations from scoping through to delivery. Key experience: Background in managed security services, including SOC operations and threat detection Strong knowledge of cloud and on-prem security tooling (SIEM, EDR, IAM) Penetration testing Proven ability to translate technical concepts into clear business value Confident in customer-facing engagements and pre-sales delivery Experience contributing to bids, proposals, and RFI/RFP responses To find out more contact me on 07884666351 Visa sponsorship is unfortunately not available for this role.
-
- Senior SOC Engineer - Microsoft | Splunk. Permanent. London
- London
- N/A
-
Senior SOC Engineer – Hybrid London Type: Full-Time A well-established cyber security provider is seeking a Senior SOC Engineer to strengthen its managed services function. This role is ideal for someone with a strong operational background in SIEM and EDR tools who can confidently lead customer onboarding, fine-tune detection strategies, and act as a senior point of contact for technical escalations. You will need to be SC clearable. Bonus points if you have SC clearance currently. You will be responsible for ensuring smooth integration of new clients into the service, optimising alerting capabilities and delivering meaningful outcomes during investigations. This is a hands-on position, working closely with internal teams and external stakeholders to maintain robust security operations across multiple environments. Prior experience in a cyber-focused MSP or MSSP Strong hands-on capability with platforms such as Microsoft Sentinel, Defender for Endpoint, or similar Proficiency in scripting and query languages such as KQL or PowerShell Knowledge of detection logic, investigation workflows, and cloud-based infrastructure Confident communicator with strong documentation and reporting skills Apply today for more information.