Cloud-based collaboration software developer Slack Technologies Inc., which started in Vancouver in 2009 but is now headquartered in San Francisco, announced today that it will soon be opening a new sales and support office in Toronto.
During the TechCrunch Disrupt conference in San Francisco, the company said it chose Toronto because of the city’s diverse talent pool, which it said would be especially helpful for customer service.
Over the next two years, Slack plans to hire 145 people at the new office, which is expected to serve clients across North America’s east coast and scheduled to open in Toronto’s downtown core sometime in December.
In a Sept. 12 statement, Slack’s customer experience director, Ali Rayl, said that while the company examined a number of potential locations, Toronto stood out because of its diverse, highly educated workforce, competitive business costs, and consistent placement on lists of the greatest cities in the world, most recently by consulting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC)’s “Cities of Opportunity” study.
“We are excited to be part of this innovative community, and appreciate the warm welcome we have received so far,” she said.
Slack’s signature collaboration software, which was released in 2013, currently boasts 3 million daily active users, while the company itself now has 600 employees worldwide at offices in Vancouver, San Francisco, and Dublin.
According to the fast-growing company, which is currently valued at $3.8 billion USD, its user base includes 77 of the U.S. Fortune 100.
High-profile clients from the tech world include AirBNB, Pinterest, LinkedIn, and Samsung.
Slack even survived a four-day hacking attempt last March, with the company’s head of policy and compliance Anne Toth using the occasion to introduce two-factor authentication and assure users that there was no unauthorized access to team data such as messages or files – and that if there was, they would be contacted privately.
