Last year saw music streamer Spotify Technologies SA seek and obtain a direct listing on the New York Stock Exchange without raising any money by way of an initial public offering (IPO). With Slack Technologies Inc., the workplace messaging company, looking to follow suit later this year, could this route to accessing stock markets, without the additional costs of an IPO but allowing investors to exit, prove popular? When Spotify sought its direct listing in April 2018, it opted not to offer any new shares, instead citing the desire to allow existing shareholders the opportunity to freely sell their shares on the open market. Executives at Spotify maintained that it did not need to raise capital to fund growth. It sought to list its shares to fulfil a promise to original investors that they would have the opportunity to cash in their investments.