Telecommunications firm SoftBank and venture capital firm Accel are set to co-lead a funding round for US-based messaging platform Slack that is expected to reach $500m, Axios reported yesterday.
A Recode report last month stated Slack was raising $500m at a $5bn post-money valuation and named corporates Amazon, Microsoft, Alphabet and Salesforce as prospective investors. SoftBank and Accel were identified by multiple sources, Axios said.
Slack has developed a searchable freemium enterprise messaging app that facilitates conversations, collaboration and file sharing. It cumulated more than 5 million daily active users since it was launched in 2014, about 1.5 million of which pay for the service.
The new round would follow a total of about $540m in funding. Slack was valued at $3.8bn, as of its last round in April 2016, in which it raised $200m from backers including GV and Comcast Ventures, subsidiaries of internet technology group Alphabet and mass media conglomerate Comcast.
Index Ventures, Accel and Social Capital also participated in the round, Index having contributed to a $160m series E round for Slack the previous year that included GV, Horizons Ventures, DST Global, Spark Capital Growth and Institutional Venture Partners.
GV and VC firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers co-led the company’s $120m series C round in 2014, which also featured existing investors Andreessen Horowitz, Accel and Social Capital.
Slack reportedly turned down a $9bn offer from e-commerce and cloud computing firm Amazon earlier this year in favour of raising additional cash.