The latest winner of SoftBank’s $100 billion fund? The communications software company Slack.
SoftBank has chosen another flashy investment: Slack
The messaging company is now valued at over $5 billion.
Craig Barritt/Getty Images for The New Yorker
Slack on Sunday said it raised $250 million from investors, a fundraise that now values the company on paper at just over $5 billion.
The outlay of cash is another sign of SoftBank’s might in Silicon Valley — the Japanese conglomerate has assembled the largest tech fund ever and is pouring an unprecedented amount of money into some of U.S.’s most promising private companies.
Other investors in Slack include the venture capital firm Accel.
“The Vision Fund’s focus on global technology platforms aligns with our recent international expansion, while Accel has been with us as investors and partners from the very beginning,” Slack CEO Stewart Butterfield said in a statement.
The new money was expected — word of Slack’s round of fundraising was reported by Recode in June.
Slack claims it is not raising the cash purely to immediately spend it, claiming the company has “yet to spend much of our existing capital,” according to a company spokeswoman. Slack instead is hoping for “operational flexibility” so it will no longer be “dependent on outside financing.”
This article originally appeared on Recode.net.
