Startup profile · funding coverage
Slack funding, valuation and investors
Team messaging and collaboration platform for workplaces.
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Funding, valuation & investors
Answer-first snapshotLatest funding
Series E
$160M · April 2015
Latest known valuation
$2.8B
Series E · April 2015
Total disclosed equity funding
$160M
Excludes debt, grants, acquisitions, secondaries, and IPO proceeds.
Current status
acquired
acquired · San Francisco, California
Investors in latest funding
Other: Andreessen Horowitz , Kleiner Perkins , Spark Capital , Index Ventures
Latest tracked event: Acquisition (July 2021). It is shown separately because it is not counted as disclosed equity funding.
Overview
Slack is a channel-based team messaging platform integrating chat, file sharing, and app workflows for workplaces. Stewart Butterfield's Tiny Speck pivoted from a failed game to Slack, which became the fastest-growing B2B app in history. Andreessen Horowitz led early rounds with a board seat. Slack IPO'd on NYSE (WORK) in June 2019 and was acquired by Salesforce in July 2021 for approximately $27.7B.
Why Slack is interesting
Fastest-growing enterprise app of its era — a16z board seat before IPO and $27.7B Salesforce acquisition.
Product & use cases
Slack organizes workplace communication in channels with threads, search, integrations (2,000+ apps), huddles, and Slack Connect for external partner collaboration.
- Team messaging replacing email for internal comms
- DevOps alerts and CI/CD notifications
- Cross-company partner channels via Slack Connect
- Remote and hybrid workplace coordination
Key facts
- Salesforce acquisition (Jul 2021): ~$27.7B
- IPO (Jun 2019): NYSE WORK
- Series E (Apr 2015): $160M at $2.8B — TechCrunch
- Pivot from Glitch game to messaging — Stewart Butterfield
Funding history (newest first)
Acquisition
2021-07 $27.7B- Salesforce (lead)
Source: https://www.salesforce.com/news/press-releases/2021/07/21/salesforce-slack-deal-close/
IPO
2019-06Source: https://investor.salesforce.com/
Series E
2015-04 $160M Valuation: $2.8B- Andreessen Horowitz (participant)
- Kleiner Perkins (participant)
- Spark Capital (participant)
- Index Ventures (participant)
Source: https://techcrunch.com/2015/04/16/slack-raises-160m-at-2-8b-valuation/
Investors in our directory
Funds linked from Slack's profile — open a fund page for stage focus and related deal articles.
Competitive landscape
Edge: Developer-loved UX and integrations created bottom-up enterprise adoption — classic product-led growth for B2B.
Slack defined modern team chat but Teams' bundling limited standalone growth. Salesforce acquisition integrated Slack into CRM workflows — $27.7B outcome validated category.
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Microsoft Teams direct
Bundled with Office 365; won on enterprise bundle economics post-Slack acquisition.
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Discord adjacent
Community messaging; some teams use for informal comms.
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Google Chat direct
Workspace-integrated competitor.
Notable stories
- Slack was a pivot from doomed game Glitch — Butterfield noticed internal chat tool was more valuable than the game itself.
- a16z board seat reflected conviction before enterprise SaaS PLG was standard playbook.
Industries
Market / IPO context
Ticker: WORK (NYSE)
IPO status: public
IPO date: 2019-06
Editorial / static context — not a live quote.
Related funding articles
Venture Capital Tracker pieces that cover Slack's financing or category context.
FAQs about Slack
Practical answers founders, operators, and investors typically search for.
Last updated:
Editorial note: AI tools assisted with research, structure, or drafting. Venture Capital Tracker retains human editorial responsibility for factual accuracy, relevance, and source quality before publication.