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This start-up that wants to kill email is about to be worth €3.5 billion

Do you Slack?

SLACK, THE STARTUP Silicon Valley can’t get enough of, is all but done with a fresh new round of financing.

The deal is expected to close in just a few weeks but many of the details are already worked out.

Sources with knowledge of the deal told us where things stand:

  • Slack is raising $200 million.
  • The valuation will fall between $3.7-$3.8 billion (€3.3 – €3.4 billion).
  • Thrive Capital, a New York-based fund run by Harvard graduate and Oscar Healthcare founder Joshua Kushner, is leading the round. There is also tonnes of insider support from previous Slack investors.

It was a competitive round that was fairly drama free, we were told.

Keep in mind that, until the round is officially done, things are subject to change. But those details are not expected to shift drastically.

Slack is a popular communication and chat platform for businesses. It allows groups to private message each other or participate in group channels. It has a nice subscription revenue model humming along, too.

Of its 2.3 million daily active users, nearly 700,000 pay Slack for more services and features on the platform, which comes out to about $64 million (€57.3 million) in annual recurring revenue. And it launched just about two years ago.

Its European headquarters is based in Dublin, employing 100 people.

One day, Slack hopes to replace email as the main form of electronic communication for businesses.

Thrive has previously made early-stage investments  in startups, but the firm is now beginning to compete with bigger, older firms in California on larger and larger deal sizes. It previously invested in Instagram, just before it was acquired by Facebook for $1 billion. Thrive has also backed Irish brothers, Patrick and John Collison’s payment company Stripe.

The Information first reported that Thrive could be involved with the $200-$250 million fundraiser, and the $3.6 billion valuation on Tuesday followed a Wall Street Journal report that the work-chat application was raising another big round.

Slack raised $160 million nearly one year ago at a $2.8 billion valuation. Microsoft reportedly thought about buying it for $8 billion but ruled against it.

This round will put its amount raised to date at over $500 million.

Web Summit Stewart Buttefield Niall Carson / PA Wire Niall Carson / PA Wire / PA Wire

Stewart Butterfield, CEO and founder of Slack, previously cofounded popular photo site Flickr. A Slack spokesperson told Business Insider:

“There has always been a great deal of investor interest in the company, and we expect that to continue. However, we have nothing to announce and nothing else to add at this point.”

More: One of the world’s hottest startups has landed in Dublin – and they’re hiring

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    Mute Jon Mackey
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    Mar 5th 2016, 7:18 AM

    Says quite a lot about the Irish electorate and their short term memory

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    Mute Vladimir Vasyectomy
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    Mar 5th 2016, 7:09 AM

    ” back at the top table.” = ” back at the trough.”

    192
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    Mute hw007
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    Mar 5th 2016, 7:18 AM

    I reckon Fianna Fáil will break all promise s again !

    106
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    Mute Liz Finn
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    Mar 5th 2016, 7:23 AM

    Well they’ve done just that at least twice before so I reckon it’s a safe bet hwoo7.

    62
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    Mute Daz
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    Mar 5th 2016, 7:38 AM

    THE GOOD TIMES ARE BACK BABY. WHAT COULD GO WRONG

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    Mute Mick Hannigan
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    Mar 5th 2016, 7:46 AM

    If you always do what you have always done you will always get what you always had and that’s what we have done, voted back in idiots who helped cause all our problems in the first place, I call them idiots more like we the people are idiots

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    Mute Pauline Long
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    Mar 6th 2016, 12:23 AM

    Yes ” madness is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different result?s” Einstein

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    Mute Les Behan
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    Mar 5th 2016, 9:27 AM

    This election proved something I have been saying for years now : “The Irish electorate are a bunch of fickle mush heads.”

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    Mute Nick Caffrey
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    Mar 5th 2016, 10:58 AM

    I wish I could give you one thousand green thumbs. It is the ELECTORATE that puts these greedy pigs in power. We ALONE are responsible for the state of the country. We resent any kind of taxation in spite of the fact that it is how we provide infrastructure. We just cannot let go of the “oppressive taxation” memories.

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    Mute Iúrach
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    Mar 5th 2016, 7:20 AM

    Do they each get their own gravy boat?

    53
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    Mute Jimmy jones
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    Mar 5th 2016, 9:46 AM

    Michael Martin is the main player and he was a Bertie underling.

    How come nobody mentions the developer Owen O Callaghan any more and how his “donation” ended up in Micheal Martin’s wife’s bank account ?

    http://www.broadsheet.ie/2011/02/11/so-why-did-that-money-end-up-in-your-wifes-account-mr-martin/

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    Mute john kinsella
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    Mar 5th 2016, 10:33 AM

    I wonder what Owen O’ Callaghan would call a water company if one just in his lap?

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    Mute Rowan Murphy
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    Mar 5th 2016, 7:09 AM

    Posed as an innocuous article. Teeing up the shot and walking away.

    44
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    Mute John Ward
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    Mar 5th 2016, 8:20 AM

    It seems that the IQ of our “cute hoor” professional politicians is significantly higher than the bulk of the electorate. The average here is 92. Just think what kind of vegetables actually have a vote!

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    Mute tomas o beag
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    Mar 5th 2016, 8:33 AM

    Smug f***kers people have very short memories

    35
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    Mute Cally
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    Mar 5th 2016, 9:41 AM

    Maybe its just me but the worst result was ryan getting back in…already he was on primetime…supporting water charges…they cant help themselves with trying to tax people..the greens…no chance of saving our planet but boy can they tax you…

    23
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    Mute Mary Walshe
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    Mar 5th 2016, 9:15 AM

    But they (FF) did a great job in Government for themselves…they lined their own pockets with as much of the countrys money as they could grab before going out of office and told the rest of us to grin and bear it when the countrys cupboard was bare…obviously they have got the scent of money again now that the recovery is underway.

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    Mute Tommy Berry
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    Mar 5th 2016, 4:31 PM

    No, the cupboard wasn’t bare , the Bert was inside it.

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    Mute Mary Walshe
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    Mar 5th 2016, 9:05 AM

    The Foxes are back in the henhouse…financial blood will be spilled and lost again and we the electorate will live to regret the result of the 2016 election should FF form a government or even hold a minority government to ransom.

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    Mute Paul Wallace
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    Mar 5th 2016, 9:08 AM

    They are back and back BIG STYLE

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    Mute Paul Dunne
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    Mar 5th 2016, 8:47 AM

    ff would and will do it all again beacuse they think they did a great job in government.

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    Mute John Campbell
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    Mar 5th 2016, 9:05 AM

    Don’t be worrying too much. They were elected by a core vote of Old Fianna Fáil voters. They have 44 seats out of 158. They are snookered whichever choice they make , liquorice all sorts coalition or propping up a minority government. Why? Because they will have to support tough decisions for the good of the country NOT the Party and they will not have a free hand on stuffing every State and semi-State body with Party hacks.

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    Mute Winston Smith
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    Mar 5th 2016, 10:45 AM

    Five years for treason with a lush pension. Where would you get it. If our Litigation laws weren’t so strict we could all be reminded more stringently through the media before elections of the Candidates past performances.

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    Mute Ivorpabst
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    Mar 5th 2016, 3:34 PM

    Callely should have had a go – he would have made it, given the national amnesia which returned the likes of Haughey etc.

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    Mute Seán Domhnall O'Sullivan
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    Mar 5th 2016, 11:22 PM

    Completely embarrassing and cringe worthy for Ireland.

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    Mute Aisling Farrell
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    Mar 5th 2016, 8:33 PM

    Another Haughey. God help us.

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