US-based online messaging platform Slack Technologies launched an $80m corporate venturing fund on Tuesday that will invest in companies to build an ecosystem around its app.
Slack provided more than half the capital for the fund, according to the Wall Street Journal, with the rest coming from six of its existing investors: Accel Partners, Andreessen-Horowitz, Index Ventures, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Spark Capital and Social+Capital Partnership.
Slack Fund will invest in developers of ‘Slack-first’ apps and companies building business-to-business and enterprise tools capable of integrating with Slack.
Stewart Butterfield, Slack’s chief executive, told the WSJ: “We do hope to get a return on these investments, but that is not the purpose.
“It is to kick start the ecosystem and encourage people to develop apps, and create examples that others can improve upon and get the flywheel spinning.”
The first three startups to receive funding from Slack Fund are work productivity tool developer Small Winds, business task automation company Awesome and Xoxco, the developer of project management tool Howdy, which raised $1.5m in seed funding last month.
Xoxco has also developed a framework for Slack called Botkit, which will simplify the creation of Slack-compatible apps.
Slack Fund was launched alongside the Slack App Directory, a list of design, marketing, office management and developer tools and productivity apps that can extend the capabilities of Slack.