US-headquartered ride hailing service Uber and US-based messaging platform developer Slack, both of which have several corporate investors, have taken significant steps toward their respective initial public offerings.
Uber has confidentially filed for an IPO with the Securities and Exchange Commission, shortly after its largest rival Lyft did the same, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday, citing people familiar with the matter.
Founded in 2009, Uber runs an on-demand ride service present in more than 80 markets, and reports in October this year suggested it could seek a valuation of up to $120bn in its IPO. Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley were reportedly in talks to be underwriters for the offering.
Uber was valued at $72bn, as of a $500m investment by automotive manufacturer Toyota in August this year that increased its total equity and debt financing to nearly $13.3bn.
GV, a corporate venturing arm of internet and technology conglomerate Alphabet, is an investor in Uber, along with telecommunications firm SoftBank, software provider Microsoft, internet company Baidu, on-demand ride service Didi Chuxing and media companies Axel Springer and Bennett Coleman & Co.
Other Uber backers include Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, Lowercase Capital, First Round Capital, Wellington Management, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers (KPCB), Menlo Ventures, Data Collective, Fidelity, Goldman Sachs, Citic Bank, Hillhouse Capital, Sequoia Capital, Benchmark, CrunchFund, BlackRock, New Enterprise Associates and Innovation Endeavor are also backers.
Slack has built a freemium workplace messaging platform that had 8 million daily active users as of May this year, some 3 million of which were paying subscribers.
The company has appointed investment banking firm Goldman Sachs as lead underwriter for its own initial public offering, in which it is targeting a valuation of “well over $10bn,” according to people familiar with the matter.
The Wall Street Journal reported in September this year that Slack was planning to go public in the first half of 2019 at a $7bn valuation. It was valued at $7.1bn in its last round of funding, a $427m series H round the month before.
Dragoneer and General Atlantic co-led the series H round, which took Slack’s overall funding to $1.27bn, investing alongside Baillie Gifford, Sands Capital, funds advised by Wellington Management and funds and accounts advised by T. Rowe Price.
Comcast Ventures, a subsidiary of mass media group Comcast, is also among Slack’s shareholders, as are SoftBank, GV, Accel, DST Global, Spark Capital Growth, Index Ventures, Social Capital, KPCB, Andreessen Horowitz, Horizons Ventures and Institutional Venture Partners.
