Slack just bought an employee directory startup that lets users find colleagues by skill or region as it tries to help people 'stay connected' during the pandemic

• Slack acquired business directory company Rimeto for an undisclosed amount, it announced Wednesday.
• The move comes as employees that are working from home are "struggling to stay connected," Slack said in a blog post.
• Rimeto, founded by three former Facebook employees, previously raised over $10 million in venture funding at a $42 million valuation, according to Pitchbook estimates.

Work productivity company Slack bought business directory startup Rimeto, it announced in a blog post Wednesday, as it tries to help its users strengthen their connections to their coworkers during the pandemic.

Rimeto's directories highlight employee skills, projects they're working on, and job experience along with contact information, and it's database is searchable by skill, region, or expertise. Slack plans to integrate Rimeto's profile and directory features directly into Slack, but will also continue to offer Rimeto as a standalone product.

Slack describes the acquisition as a solution to the fact that customers and employees were "struggling to stay connected" during the coronavirus crisis.

"We all want to understand the people we work with and have context around their lives," Slack wrote in its blog post explaining the acquisition. "Employees with weak social ties to their colleagues aren't as happy or productive as employees at companies with a thriving, healthy culture."

The integration will make it easier for users to "find the people you need and understand the humans you're working with," the post added.

Rimeto was founded in 2016 by three former Facebook employees and raised an estimated $10.6 million in venture funding at a $42 million valuation, according to PitchBook. Neither Slack nor Rimeto has disclosed the terms of the acquisition.

This is Slack's seventh acquisition, according to Crunchbase, and the first company that it plans to keep as a standalone product. In 2018, it acquired email assistant startup Astro, as well as messaging rivals Stride and Hipchat from the collaboration software company Atlassian. Its first acquisition was the collaborative document company Spaces in 2014.