Sandberg, Meta veterans invest in AI-powered workplace communication startup

After two years since Meta revealed its plans to close the Workplace enterprise service, a group of former engineers from the social platform is introducing a fresh corporate communication tool.

Named Slashwork, the startup unveiled on Wednesday that it secured $3.5 million in investment from various backers, including Slack's co-founder Cal Henderson and Sandberg Bernthal Venture Partners, the venture capital outfit of former Meta COO Sheryl Sandberg.

The London-based company was established by Jackson Gabbard, David Miller, and Josh Watzman. 

These former Facebook engineers are creating Slashwork as a corporate communication solution akin to Salesforce's Slack and Microsoft's Teams but enhanced with artificial intelligence (AI).

"Our starting point was set, and then we asked ourselves, 'What does the AI landscape look like by 2026?'" Gabbard, the CEO, shared with CNBC. "What can be achieved if we redesign everything from scratch with AI integrated wherever it is appropriate?"

Gabbard explained to CNBC that Slashwork incorporates a large-language model embedding in every content piece, enabling comprehensive user search capabilities. Users can instruct AI agents to assist with locating posts or images that fail to appear.

Facebook introduced Workplace in 2016 as a business communication platform resembling its social networking site, specifically for enterprise clients to connect employees. 

Meta decided to sunset the service in 2024 to concentrate on the Metaverse and AI-focused investments.

In addition to Sandberg, Slashwork also received investments from other former Facebook executives, such as ex-revenue chief David Fischer, ex-ads chief Carolyn Everson, and former sales leader AJ Tennant, who was among the initial sales leaders at Slack.