Jason Spinell has been the head of Slack Fund, the corporate venturing fund set up by messaging platform Slack, for the past seven years.
Slack initially partnered with with Accel, Index Ventures, KPCB, Social Capital, Andreessen Horowitz and Spark Capital to form the $80m first fund in December 2015, committing $40m itself and securing the rest from its investor base. Its remit was to invest in startups developing technology compatible with the company’s platform.
In 2020, the unit announced its $50m second fund, this time funded solely by Slack. The second fund has a broader scope than its predecessor: it is devoted to investing in companies “of all shapes and sizes that help craft the future of work”, and there is no longer a requirement that investee companies have a crossover with Slack.
Spinell said: “The mission of the fund is to invest in and collaborate with the next great wave of enterprise software companies that are focused on building what the future of work will be.”
Among Slack Fund’s recent investments are the $90m series D round for Electric, an IT management platform aimed at small businesses, and the $50m venture round for Pipe, a global trading platform.
Spinell was previously ventures director for Undercurrent, a New York-headquartered, digitally-focused consulting firm, until it closed in August 2015. Two of its portfolio companies, Makr and Grand St, were acquired by Staples and Etsy respectively.
He has a bachelor’s degree in economics from the University of Colorado, Boulder and an MBA from the same institution’s Leeds School of Business.
