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of the year in January, agreeing to pay $3.7 billion for AppDynamics, Inc. right before the software developer start-up was due to price its initial public offering.

LATEST FUNDING

Slack raised $ 200 million in its latest funding round in 2016, led by Thrive Capital Management LLC, valuing it at $ 3.8 billion. The company, which introduced its business chat software in 2013, has recently turned its eye to bigger users. In January, Slack debuted an enterprise version of its chat software that allows tens of thousands of employees to collaborate across teams at major corporations like International Business Machines Corp.

Other backers include GGV Capital, Comcast Ventures LLC, Accel Partners, Social Capital, Spark Growth and Index Ventures.

Slack’s Canadian born cofounder and chief executive officer, Stewart Butterfield, said last month in a Bloomberg TV interview that an IPO “would be years away,” citing some unpredictability as the business continues to grow quickly.

The company has about 800 employees across seven offices, including one recently opened in London. Slack has 5 million daily active users — 1.5 million of whom pay to use the service — and had $ 150 million in annual recurring revenue as of Jan. 31.

Bloomberg Beta, the venture capital arm of Bloomberg LP, is an investor in Slack.