*By Carlo Versano*
Slack, the popular workplace communication tool, is now valued at more than $7 billion.
The company announced Tuesday it closed a new $427 million funding round, making it one of the most valuable privately held tech start-ups ー and strengthening its position against tech titans like Microsoft, Google, and Cisco, all of which have their own enterprise products competing in the space.
San Francisco-based Slack, which allows members to talk in private chats and group channels, [said in a blog post](https://slackhq.com/slack-raises-series-h-round-of-financing-from-new-investors) it would use the capital investment to grow its business, which now has more than 8 million daily active users and 70,000 organizations paying for access.
The new valuation, up almost 40 percent from the $5.1 billion it was worth last year, makes Slack more valuable than Vice Media, fintech firm Robinhood, and online sports marketplace Fanatics, according to CBInsight's [Global Unicorn Club](https://www.cbinsights.com/research-unicorn-companies).
The funding round was led by General Atlantic and Dragoneer Investment Group and included T. Rowe Price, Wellington Management, Baillie Gifford and Sands Capital. Last year, Slack got a $200 million cash infusion from [Softbank's Vision Fund](https://www.recode.net/2017/9/18/16324754/softbank-slack-investment), the massive venture capital fund that has pumped billions into some of the most high-profile unicorns in Silicon Valley. It's raised more than $1 billion to date.
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Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison wrested the title of the world’s richest man from longtime holder Elon Musk early Wednesday as stock in his software giant rocketed more than a third in a stunning few minutes of trading. That is according to wealth tracker Bloomberg. A college dropout, the 81-year-old Ellison is now worth $393 billion, Bloomberg says, several billion more than Musk, who had been the world’s richest for four years. The switch in the ranking came after a blockbuster earnings report from Oracle. Forbes still has Musk as the richest, however, valuing his private businesses much higher.
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