Workplace chat app Slack is set to announce a new funding round in the next few weeks, raising up to $160m (£107m) in investment and placing the value of the company at around $2.76bn.

According to the Wall Street Journal, the popularity of the app has seen the startup more than double its valuation in less than five months, and has attracted investment from DST Global, Institutional Venture Partners, Horizon Ventures and Index Ventures, among others.

The new investors have committed $135m during this round, and Slack maintains the option to raise another $25m from existing or new investors without beginning another full funding round.

Slacks rapid rise is built on its popularity as an enterprise app, enabling coworkers to chat and discuss work, and unlike many high-valued consumer-facing startups, it has been seeing growing revenues from its business users.

Slack boasts around 500,000 daily users, over a quarter of whom pay a monthly cost of at least $6.67 to access premium features. The companys business model generally involves hooking workers with its free version, then convincing bosses of the worth of the premium service.

In October, Stewart Butterfield, chief executive of the firm, was quoted saying that the company was raising money simply because it was in demand with investors, rather than due to any need for money, and in fact Slack could run on the amount of cash it had at the time for 60 years.