Slack has confidentially filed to go public

Bust out your favorite party parrot: Slack has completed its first official step in the road to going public.

Slack published a blog post Monday stating that it had “confidentially submitted a draft registration statement” with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). This is a form that essentially lets the SEC begin reviewing the company’s financials in advance of a stock listing. Slack has chosen to do so confidentially, which means it’s not giving just anyone a peek under its financial hood.

Slack has raised over $1 billion since its founding in 2013, according to the Wall Street Journal, and some estimate that the valuation could go for up to $7 billion.

Slack is pursuing a direct listing, which means it will be selling its shares directly to the public. That’s in contrast to an Initial Public Offering (IPO), which uses underwriters and intermediaries to give the stock more predictability and stability as soon as it launches — at a hefty fee. 

Direct listings are rare, but Spotify successfully went public with a direct listing in 2018, leading some to speculate that other already successful tech companies could follow suit.

Goldman Sachs is still helping out with the direct listing, according to Reuters. The messaging platform could reportedly go public in Q2. Which means all of us could soon have the chance to share in the wealth that is animated .gifs in work chats.