*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.
Irrigation might have saved Jackson's hay, but she and her husband rejected the idea about 10 years ago over the cost: as much as $75,000 for a new well and all the equipment. But now — with an extended drought and another U.S. heat wave this week that will broil her land about an hour northwest of Dallas for days in 100-degree-plus temperatures — Jackson said she is “kind of rethinking.”
Children’s advocacy groups including Fairplay and Common Sense Media are asking the Federal Trade Commission to investigate Google, saying the tech giant serves personalized ads to kids on YouTube despite federal law prohibiting the practice.
U.S. regulators on Wednesday announced a settlement with the company that runs Dollar Tree and Family Dollar aimed at improving worker safety at thousands of the bargain stores across the country.
From moving finances online to the new ways we'll be getting cash, Ray Hatch, the Vice President of Enterprise Solutions Vertical Markets at Comcast Business explains how the banking industry is getting ready for the future.
