This article originally ran in Term Sheet, Coins2Day’s newsletter about deals and dealmakers. Sign up here.
Three bombshell funding rounds were announced today.
Slack, the workplace chat platform, snagged $427 million in funding at a $7.1 billion valuation. Dragoneer Investment Group and General Atlantic led the funding, along with others, including T. Rowe Price Associates, investment firm Baillie Gifford, Sands Capital, and previous investors. The company last raised money in September when it said it landed $250 million, with SoftBank’s Vision Fund contributing the bulk of the capital.
My colleague Jonathan Vanian reports that Slack’s growing popularity hasn’t gone unnoticed. Microsoft recently updated its corporate filings with the SEC to list Slack as one of its several competitors along with Apple, Cisco, Facebook, and Google.
Also based in San Francisco, carsharing platform Getaround raised a whopping $300 million in Series D funding. SoftBank led the round, and was joined by investors including Toyota Motor Corporation.
And finally, mobile bulk shopping startup Boxed raised $111 million in funding. Japan’s Aeon Co led the round and was joined by investors including Alpha Square Group, CDIB Capital, Gabriel Naouri and existing investors.
These funding rounds are indicative of a larger trend that’s ripping through the ecosystem. Last month set an an all-time record for the number of $100 million+ venture deals struck in a single month, according to Crunchbase. I’ve written extensively on how excess capital is widening the funding gap.
Erin Griffith, former Term Sheet author who is now at The New York Times, wrote a comprehensive piece on the notion that mega-rounds — $100 million or more — used to be a rarity. Now, they’re pretty commonplace. In the article, Bill Gurley says, “If your competitor is going to raise $150 million and you want to be conservative and only raise $20 million, you’re going to get run over.”
And that’s the theme these days — capital as a differentiator. In today’s world, even a really well-funded startup company will have trouble competing when it’s up against a rival backed by a mega-fund.
SoftBank, which has invested in both Slack and Getaround, poses the following question to CEOs before they write a check from their mammoth $100 billion Vision Fund: If money was not a constraint, what would you do differently in the next five to 10 years?
The reality is that there’s a lot of money out there — and if you don’t take it, your competitor will.