Enterprise communication platform Slack is set to raise $250m in its forthcoming funding round, which will be co-led by telecom and internet firm SoftBank and venture capital firm Accel, Bloomberg reported yesterday.
The round will value Slack at more than $5bn, according to people familiar with the matter, and the details were confirmed to TechCrunch by its own sources. Earlier reports had suggested the size of the round could reach $500m.
Slack has built a workplace communication app with more than 5 million daily active users, including 1.5 million that choose the paid version. It has so far raised about $540m in funding, and was valued at $3.8bn as of a $200m series E round in April 2016.
GV and Comcast Ventures, respective corporate venturing vehicles for internet and technology conglomerate Alphabet and mass media group Comcast, were among the investors in that round, along with Accel, Index Ventures and Social Capital.
GV, Accel, Social Capital, Index Ventures, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and Andreessen Horowitz provided $120m for Slack in a 2014 series C round, before GV, Index, Horizons Ventures, DST Global, Spark Capital Growth and Institutional Venture Partners added $160m in 2015.
In addition to supporting growth, the forthcoming round will also allow Slack shareholders including some employees to sell stock, sources told Bloomberg.
E-commerce and cloud computing firm Amazon, software producer Microsoft, enterprise software provider Salesforce and Alphabet, all of which were said to be interested in acquiring Slack earlier this year, have not been mentioned as investors in the round.