Slack just got a $5 billion valuation in a mega funding round led by SoftBank and Accel

pulse

July 27, 2017 1:02 AM

Accel and SoftBank led $250 million in funding for the popular chat application.

Slack is raising $250 million in funding led by Accel and Japanese internet giant SoftBank — the same company that's looking to take a multibillion dollar stake in Uber.

The Series G funding, reported by Bloomberg, puts the popular chat application at a $5 billion valuation, a big step up from the $3.8 billion valuation Slack had at its last funding round in April 2016.

It's a big milestone for Slack, which currently has about $1 billion in revenues, although the amount of money raised is half of what early reports had anticipated.

The company was previously expected to rake in $500 million at a $5 billion valuation. It's also been rumored that Amazon, Microsoft, and Google were all interested in acquiring the startup.

If an acquisition had gone through, it would be have represented a major strategic shift for the company, which Slack CEO Stewart Butterfield has repeatedly signaled he plans to keep independent.

Slack declined to comment.

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