The uncertainty of Brexit seems to loom over the UK, this, however, seems inapplicable when it comes to decisions undertaken by technological companies. The latest to join the list is business-focussed team chat app – Slack. It is setting up an office in the London, the second in Europe after setting up one in Dublin back in 2015.
The new office will initially have a sales team of five but it plans to augment the headcount to 20 by the end of this year, with sales as the major focus. The center will work along with the office in Dublin to accelerate the development and expansion across Europe. London is said to be Slack’s most active city in Europe and counts in the company’s top five globally.
Since the summer last year, there have various speculations that focus on the cold impact of Brexit on financial, technological, and talent acquisition. However, various tech giants treat London the same they used to – a city prominent from the business point of view, as London is still looking up to maintain its position of the “FinTech Capital”.
Facebook Inc. had revealed the plans to ramp up its UK headcount by 50 percent, and hired 500 new employees. Then, Snap Inc. went on to announce London as its international hub. Prior to that Google also displayed confidence in the UK by talking about the plans to expand its offices to house 3,000 additional staff.
Slack’s Chief Executive Officer Stewart Butterfield, in an interview on Bloomberg Television, remarked,
Brexit or no Brexit, London is still London and the U.K. is still the U.K. About half of our daily active users are outside North America. Here in the U.K. it’s our second biggest market.
The decision to set up the office in London is a result of customer demand as slack usage in the U.K. has doubled over the past year.
Slack had secured $200 million in the latest investment round last year. At a valuation of $3.8 billion, its total funding raised by outside investors amounts to $540 million.
