Following Shopify’s successful IPO and strong growth, the Canadian tech community has kept its eye on the nation’s other unicorns to see who might join the Ottawa-based company. Both Slack and Hootsuite were in the news yesterday, demonstrating the wide swings of an uncertain market.
“We are on track and the business is healthier now than ever.”
– Hootsuite CEO Ryan Holmes
Bloomberg has reported that U.S. asset manager Fidelity Investments has written down the value of its stake in Hootsuite by 18 percent. Fidelity led Hootsuite’s $60 million USD round in 2014, elevating the Vancouver social media startup’s valuation to the $1 billion unicorn level. Hootsuite was one of many tech companies Fidelity disclosed it had marked down in public filings.
BetaKit reached out to Ryan Holmes for comment, and the Hootsuite CEO had this to say.
“We do not have insight or input into the valuation formula of our public investors,” said Holmes. “They applied public averages to their private portfolio. I can tell you that this valuation is not indicative or reflective of our business outlook, growth rates, and operational metrics. In anticipation of a more challenging financial markets in 2016, my team has proactively organized for cash neutrality in this year. We are on track and the business is healthier now than ever.”
Meanwhile, Bloomberg and the Wall Street Journal are reporting that Slack is looking to raise $150 to $300 million USD round valuing the company somewhere between $3.5 and $4 billion USD.
The news comes just weeks after the fast-growing business communication startup celebrated its second anniversary with 2.3 million daily active users, and over $64 million in annual recurring revenue.
Slack wouldn’t comment on the news directly, but a company spokesperson did tell WSJ that “Slack is doing well. There has always been a great deal of investor interest in the company, and we expect that to continue.”
The company also announced yesterday that it would soon begin testing voice and video chat.