To Perfect Checkout for Online Retailers, Bolt Boosts Funding to $90M
Bolt was created with one simple but ambitious goal: to perfect the checkout experience for online retailers and make sure nothing gets in the way when shoppers decide to buy. We’ve been quietly working behind the scenes for the last four years and today, we’re excited to share some exciting updates.
We’ve come a long way since publicly launching in January 2018. We’ve reached an annualized payment processing volume of more than $1 billion, conducted more than 1.5M transactions through the platform, and helped customers realize more than $25M in new revenue with our dynamically optimized checkout and conversion-focused fraud detection.
During this time, the Bolt team has also expanded from just ten people working out of a loft in San Francisco to over 125 employees across three offices, with top talent coming from companies like Google, Facebook, Uber, Airbnb, Pinterest, and Braintree. This year, Bolt was also recognized by a number of industry accolades, from the Forbes Fintech 50 to Inc. Magazine’s Best Workplaces list.
Activant Capital and Tribe Capital Invest in Bolt, with Support from Retail Executives at Allbirds, REVOLVE, Jet.com, and Bombas
To help us accomplish our goal of perfecting the checkout experience, Bolt has raised an additional $68M in Series B funding in a round co-led by Activant Capital and Tribe Capital, bringing the total amount raised to $90M. Activant Capital is the leading investor in commerce technology. Tribe Capital is a venture capital firm created by three former partners at Social Capital, where they pioneered the use of data to recognize and amplify product/market fit.
Bolt will use the capital to:
-
Scale our engineering team significantly
-
Invest in additional enterprise functionality for larger retailers
-
Partner with best-in-breed ecommerce tools, shopping carts, and payments platforms
-
Build advanced features, functionality, and optimizations around the shopping experience
-
Expand global functionality
“Bolt is the first company to give online retailers a single product for managing the most important part of their business: checkout. They’ve assembled the most elite product and engineering team I’ve ever seen to tackle some of the biggest problems in online retail, and have a breakthrough approach to fraud detection and checkout speed. The moment I was introduced to Bolt, I knew immediately that the company would be the missing piece of the e-commerce ecosystem that we’ve been waiting for.”
Steven R. Sarracino, Founder & Partner, Activant Capital
We’re also excited to welcome personal investments from some of the biggest names in retail, who’ve recognized the potential of the Bolt platform. Benny Joseph (Allbirds), Jon Tam (REVOLVE), Dave Heath (Bombas), Kevin Weinman (Burrow), Brett Jackson (former Crocs), Kelly Cooper (former Athleta), Paul Zaengle (Stance), Kevin Han (former Forever 21), Evan DiMeglio (Jet.com), Melissa Mash (Dagne Dover), are just some of the retail experts personally investing in Bolt because they believe in our mission.
“After working in retail for a decade, I’ve seen first hand the challenges associated with online shopping, both on the backend and when it comes to the shopper experience. Bolt is tackling all this and more, which is why I’m excited for the company and its mission. This is just the beginning for Bolt as they build out their product and partner with more of the retailers we all know and love.”
Jonathan Tam, Director of Operations, REVOLVE
A Single Platform to Power the Complete Buying Experience
Bolt is different from every other product on the market because of our holistic approach to checkout, which includes payments and fraud detection. Previously, retailers had to patch together several solutions to power their sites’ buying experience. The result was complex tech stack that required significant upkeep and operational overhead. By combining all checkout, payments, and fraud detection under one hood, we’re able to power a better buying experience for shoppers and maximize conversion for retailers, helping them to better compete with Amazon and other retail giants.
We’re excited to share today that DITA Eyewear, HUF Worldwide, and Polywood are among the online retailers that recently selected Bolt to transform the way they sell online.
“Any business that isn’t using Bolt is at a competitive disadvantage. Bolt has not only found us significant new revenue, they have an incredible team that’s served as a true partner to Dita every step of the way. We believe in the Bolt vision and think that without a doubt, there are big things ahead for the company.”
Cody Cho, VP of Global Ecommerce, DITA Eyewear
Our Mission: Level the Playing Field in Online Commerce
Amazon dominates online retail in the US, representing over half of the market share due to its ultra convenient and streamlined buying experience. However, the rest of the retail space lags far behind in their buying experience, and is at a significant disadvantage. Bolt hopes to level the playing field by giving everyone who’s not Amazon that same level of sophistication without any technical resources needed on their end.
This is just the beginning. We know that there’s a lot of work to be done in order to perfect checkout and transform an industry that’s operated under the same set of assumptions for the last decade. Stay tuned as we not only continue to build out our offering for businesses, but also develop new solutions for shoppers, focused on making it easier for them to manage all of their online shopping.
View original content here
Related Bolt News: