US-based online communication app developer Slack confirmed yesterday that it has raised $160m in series E funding at a $2.8bn valuation from investors including internet company Google.
Horizons Ventures, DST Global, Index Ventures, Spark Capital Growth and Institutional Venture Partners (IVP) all took part in the round as new investors. Google Ventures, Google’s corporate venturing unit, was joined by fellow existing investors Accel Partners, Andreessen Horowitz, The Social+Capital Partnership, and Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers.
Reports late last month stated Slack had raised $135m in the round, including $50m from Horizons and $25m each from IVP, Index and DST, and was seeking a further $25m to close out the round.
Slack has developed a freemium workplace communication and archiving app that is currently achieving extremely high traction.
Launched in February 2014, the company has accumulated 750,000 daily users, 200,000 of which pay for the service, and both its daily and paying users have doubled since the start of 2015. Its customers include Adobe, New York Times, BuzzFeed, Live Nation, Expedia, HBO and PayPal.
Slack has now raised $340m in total funding since it was founded as game developer Tiny Speck in 2009. Google Ventures co-led a $120m round for the company in October 2014 at a $1.1bn valuation.
Explaining the relatively short window between fundraisings, Slack CEO Stewart Butterfield told Fortune: “We are kind of in the best environment ever to raise money and while things could always get better and we will wish we had waited another six months, having a couple hundred million bucks in the bank is a good hedge about what might happen in the future.”