Slack, a US-based enterprise messaging platform developer backed by corporates Alphabet, Comcast and SoftBank, will seek a direct listing in the second quarter of 2019, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday.
The Journal cited people familiar with the matter, who also said the listing is set to value Slack at more than $7bn while warning that plans are subject to change. Slack has not released an official statement.
News that Slack was considering a direct listing first emerged last month, contradicting separate reports the same week that the company had hired investment bank Goldman Sachs as lead underwriter for an initial public offering.
Founded in 2009 as game developer Tiny Speck, Slack operates an eponymous cloud-based freemium communication and collaboration platform that has attracted 8 million daily active users, including more than 70,000 teams with paid subscriptions, across more than 500,000 organisations.
Slack – an acronym for searchable log of all conversation and knowledge – has also created a directory of more than 1,500 third-party apps that allow users to integrate it with services such as customer relationship management tool Salesforce and payment processor Stripe.
Slack has raised approximately $1.27bn to date and was valued at more than $7.1bn as of its last round, a $427m series H in August 2018 co-led by investment group Dragoneer and growth equity firm General Atlantic.
The series H round also featured Baillie Gifford, Sands Capital, funds advised by Wellington Management, funds and accounts advised by T. Rowe Price, and unnamed existing backers.
Internet and telecommunications conglomerate SoftBank’s Vision Fund led a $250m round for Slack in 2017, investing together with Accel.
Comcast Ventures and GV, respective corporate venturing vehicles for mass media group Comcast and internet technology conglomerate Alphabet, had joined Accel, Index Ventures and Social Capital for the company’s $200m series F round the previous year.
GV had already backed a $160m series E round for Slack in 2015 alongside Accel, Social Capital, Index Ventures, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers (KPCB), Andreessen Horowitz, Horizons Ventures, DST Global, Spark Capital Growth and Institutional Venture Partners.
The round came in the wake of a $120m series D round in 2014 co-led by GV and KPCB that included Accel, Social Capital and Andreessen Horowitz.
