Software start-up Slack gets $427mln investment; valuation passes $7bln

"The lead investors are Dragoneer Investment Group and General Atlantic, joined by funds and accounts advised by T. Rowe Price Associates, Inc. and funds advised by Wellington Management, and Baillie Gifford and Sands Capital, as well as existing investors," Slack announced in a statement on Tuesday.

It noted that the new investment came after a previous injection of $841 million.

Slack is a workplace software startup and application that aims to help employees move away from email.

In four years, Slack has grown its customer base to over 8 million Daily Active Users (DAUs) and more than 70,000 paid teams. There was "still enormous potential", it said, to how people and organisations work together.

"The way people work is changing, and we are committed to delivering the best product and experience for our customers in this new era," the startup said.

Slack also revealed it had "pursued this additional investment" to be able to benefit from more resources and have better flexibility to serve its customers, evolve its business, and "take advantage of the massive opportunity in front of us."

While Slack appears to have found a niche among small- and medium-sized businesses, according to analysts, it continues to see strong competition from companies like Microsoft and Facebook who are offering workplace collaboration tools.