Slack is really loud.
It’s loud in terms of those message dings, yes, but it’s also noisy in terms of the number of channels you inevitably land in, wading through them, trying to track the information you actually need. Frankly, it’s a problem I have a lot. And Craft Ventures cofounder and partner David Sacks—known for, among other things, cohosting the All-In Podcast—is looking to solve it.
Sacks teamed up with Evan Owen, previously an entrepreneur-in-residence at Craft, to cofound work chat company Glue back in 2021. Yesterday, Glue opened public access to the product (albeit with a waitlist) for the first time, with Owen as CEO and Sacks as chairman.
“In a way, you can think of it as a mashup of ChatGPT and Slack, but with differences from each,” said Sacks. “So, the difference between Glue and ChatGPT is that it’s multi-player and it’s a fully-featured chat app. But it uses the concept of chat that I think ChatGPT uses, which is thread-based—each chat uses its own thread, and AI gives it a name.”
The duo has history in the workplace chat game. Owen was previously the VP of engineering at communication app Zinc, which was acquired in 2019 for undisclosed terms by ServiceMax, while Sacks was the founder and CEO of Yammer, acquired by Microsoft for $1.2 billion in 2012.
While Glue does look quite a bit like Slack in certain ways (something Owen acknowledges in our demo even before I can bring it up), it does have key features that are, I would say, quite different. To me, the essential one is this: that, as is the case with ChatGPT, you can ask questions and the platform will provide answers. For example, I could ask who the right person at my company is to go to for advice on a specific topic or have it aggregate what colleagues have said about the direction of a specific project. (There’s also a feature in which you can make your own emoji. Per a live demo, I can confirm that it works and that Owen was able to make me a red skydiver emoji.)
Sacks and Owen are confident the total addressable market for a product like Glue is massive—and they know that the path to victory runs through some incredibly well-established competition.
“Every company needs something like this,” said Sacks. “In fact, most companies do have something like this, so we’re aware of the fact we have to take share from Slack and [Microsoft] Teams.”
In a weird coincidence of timing, as if to underscore just how formidable of a challenge Glue is facing, news emerged Tuesday that another high-profile Slack rival was calling it quits. The Information reported that Facebook-parent Meta is pulling the plug on its Workplace product, and focusing instead on bringing AI and metaverse tools to business users.
Of course, Sacks and Owen would argue that they’re already focusing on AI and on reimagining the workplace chat experience for the AI platform shift.
“AI is such a big disruption that’s going to shake up a lot of categories of software, and it provides the opportunity to come in with something radically different and better,” said Sacks. “Because it’s not just a big usability improvement, it’s also the fact that you can get all these answers from AI that you couldn’t before. It’s going to provide the canvas for a whole world of innovation.”
Elsewhere…My colleague Jessica Mathews scooped the news that autonomous robo-taxi company Cruise, owned by General Motors, settled with a pedestrian who was dragged by one of its vehicles last year.
And in case you missed it…OpenAI’s chief scientist Ilya Sutskever has left the company, roughly six months after the attempted ousting of Sam Altman.
See you tomorrow,
Allie Garfinkle
Twitter: @agarfinks
Email: alexandra.garfinkle@fortune.com
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Joe Abrams curated the deals section of today’s newsletter.
VENTURE DEALS
- Restaurant365, an Irvine, Calif.-based restaurant enterprise management platform, raised $175 million in funding. ICONIQ Growth led the round and was joined by existing investors KKR, L Catterton, and others.
- Chapter, a New York City-based Medicare navigation platform for seniors, raised $50 million in Series C funding. XYZ Venture Capital led the round and was joined by existing investors Narya Capital, Addition, Susa Ventures, and Maverick Ventures.
- Brixton Biosciences, a Cambridge, Mass.-based developer of therapies for chronic and acute pain, raised $33 million in Series B funding. Schooner Capital led the round and was joined by SV Health Investors, Sparta Group, Excelestar Ventures, PV Capital Management, and Catalyst Health Ventures.
- Sona, a London, U.K.-based workplace management platform for frontline teams in the social care, restaurant, hotel, and retail sectors, raised $27.5 million in Series A funding. Felicis led the round and was joined by Northzone and existing investors Gradient Ventures and SpeedInvest.
- Butter Payments, a San Francisco-based payments platform designed to help subscription-based companies recover failed payments, raised $10 million in funding from existing investors Atomic and Norwest.
- Monitaur, a Boston, Mass.-based developer of governance software for AI models, raised $6 million in Series A funding. Cultivation Capital led the round and was joined by Rockmont Partners, Defy VC, Techstars, and others.
PRIVATE EQUITY
- Attain Capital acquired a minority stake in Excella, an Arlington, Va.-based provider of Agile technology solutions. Financial terms were not disclosed.
- The Brydon Group acquired Micro-Dyn Medical Systems, a Carmel, Ind.-based health care software company. Financial terms were not disclosed.
- Firmament recapitalized Whitecap Waste, a Beckley, W.V.-based provider of solid waste collection services. Financial terms were not disclosed.
- IRIS Software Group, backed by Leonard Green & Partners, acquired Swipeclock, a South Jordan, Utah.-based provider of workforce management technology. Financial terms were not disclosed.
- Oakley Capital agreed to acquire a majority stake in vitroconnect, a Gütersloh, Germany-based platform designed to connect broadband providers with resellers. Financial terms were not disclosed.
- Summit Hydraulics, a portfolio company of North Branch Capital, acquired PowerX International, a Waukesha, Wisc.-based supplier of hydraulic cylinders, pumps, and tools. Financial terms were not disclosed.
EXITS
- Castik Capital agreed to acquire a majority stake in Andra Tech Group, a Noord-Brabant, The Netherlands-based group of manufacturers of high-tech precision components and sub-modules, from Equistone Partners Europe. Financial terms were not disclosed.
IPOS
- Grupo Aeroméxico, a Mexico City, Mexico-based airline, filed to go public on the New York Stock Exchange. The company posted $5.2 billion in revenue for the year ending March 31, 2024. Apollo Management, Delta, Banco Actinver, Silver Point Capital, and SVP Funds back the company.
- Novelis, an Atlanta, Ga.-based aluminum recycler and manufacturer of aluminum products, filed to go public on the New York Stock Exchange. The company posted $16.2 billion in revenue for the year ending March 31, 2024. Hindalco backs the company.
FUNDS + FUNDS OF FUNDS
- FSN Capital, an Oslo, Norway-based private equity firm, raised €400 million ($432.7 million) for its new Compass Fund focused on purpose-driven companies in Northern Europe.
- Norrsken VC, a Stockholm, Sweden-based venture capital firm, raised €320 million ($346.3 million) for its second fund focused on companies in the climate tech, energy, biotech AI, and health tech sectors.
- NewVale Capital, a Boulder, Colo.-based growth equity investment firm, raised $167 million for their first fund focused on life science services companies.
PEOPLE
- BayPine, a Boston, Mass.-based private equity firm, hired Migo Terjanian as a partner and head of investor relations. Formerly. He was with BC Partners.
- Chicago Ventures, a Chicago, Ill.-based venture capital firm, hired Eric Duboe as a partner. Formerly, he was with Relativity.
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