Bolt Scores $393 Million in New Funding to Fuel Federated Checkout Network

Originally published by Finextra Picture credit - Forbes / Bolt

A whole generation of shoppers has come to expect the ease of Amazon’s one-click checkout—it’s seamless and hassle-free.

Shopify has also found success with Shop Pay, which allows users to flow through checkout in one tap. But these two giants’ reach, while extensive, is confined to their respective platforms, leaving little flexibility or control for other ecommerce platforms and retailers. Merchants who don’t have access to data and insights on their shoppers barely have a fighting chance.

Five years ago, we launched our first checkout product to one tiny merchant. We had big dreams—of an internet where consumers could shop and check out anywhere in just one click. We spent the next several years building and scaling our product and our network. Today, we partner with hundreds of retailers, with thousands more coming online, and have just crossed the milestone of 10 million registered shoppers.

I’m thrilled that we’re uniting the fragmented commerce landscape by building the world’s first federated checkout network. The Bolt network is an open ecosystem where shoppers can shop across any platform and payments or Buy Now Pay Later providers, on any page where they discover new products, with just a single shopper identity.

18X our valuation in 18 months

Today, we announced $393 million in new funding: $333 million in Series D funding and $60 million in follow-on capital at ~18X our valuation ~18 months ago. The round was led by a large London-based investment firm and other investors include Untitled Investments, Willoughby Capital, and Soma Capital; existing investors General Atlantic, Tribe Capital, Activant Capital, and Moore Strategic Ventures participated. This new raise brings Bolt’s total funding to nearly $600 million.

Today’s one small step for Bolt, and one giant leap for online commerce. This funding brings us one step closer to ending guest checkout on the internet. Retailers and brands crave a network outside the major marketplaces and the ability to offer their customers consistent experiences. Shoppers, meanwhile, want a single identity to shop securely, wherever they are.

“Checkout is among the most complex, strategic, and financially impactful components of a merchant’s technology stack,” said Neeraj Chandra, CEO of Untitled Investments. “Consumers have come to expect the ease of an Amazon-like checkout experience everywhere. By leveraging its leading platform and network of millions of shoppers, Bolt is uniquely positioned to help merchants deliver a seamless, one-click experience to consumers along with significantly improved conversion. We are thrilled to support Bolt on its mission to become the ubiquitous checkout for the internet.”

Why Bolt?

Our newest customers speak up

Lucky Brand (launched!)

“Lucky Brand is an iconic American lifestyle brand, rooted in denim, offering an omni-channel experience where ecommerce is critical to the way customers interact with the brand,” said Mike Dupuis, Chief Digital Officer of SPARC Group LLC. “In conjunction with our recent site upgrade, we implemented Bolt checkout and are excited to see the new shoppers and low friction checkout experience from Bolt contribute to incremental success for Lucky Brand.”

Casper (coming soon)

“As a brand built with a customer-first mindset, helping millions of people achieve their best night’s sleep, we’re excited to partner with Bolt to provide a user-friendly, frictionless shopping experience for consumers,” said Philip Krim, Casper’s Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer. “Leveraging Bolt’s network of one-click-checkout-ready shoppers will allow us to make the shopping experience more seamless and efficient for our customers.”

Our existing customers speak up

Swissgear

“SWISSGEAR is built on trust, quality, and innovation, so it was imperative to offer the smooth checkout experience that customers have come to expect,” said Daniel Serres, ecommerce IT director of Group III International in charge of SWISSGEAR.com. “We were an early adopter of Bolt because the company offered us the increase in checkout conversion and fraud protection that we sought. Today, we see a huge benefit from network-driven transactions as well where Bolt account holders checking out of our website for the first-time get to breeze through checkout in just one click—that’s a game changer for our online business.”

Betabrand

“With the shift to working from home over the past year, shoppers have turned to Betabrand at unprecedented rates for their at-home work outfits that bridge the gap between form and function,” said Chris Lindland, Founder & CEO of Betabrand. “We partnered with Bolt to ensure that the surge in visitors to our website experienced an efficacious checkout. Not only did Bolt One Click significantly outperform our previous checkout offering, Bolt’s network of millions of shoppers is driving new users to Betabrand as if they are return shoppers, enabling us to significantly deepen our relationships with customers.”

With our new capital, we’re sprinting ahead at lightning speed

⅓ of all US Shoppers by 2022

Based on committed deals, we expect 11% of U.S. shoppers to be a part of our network by the end of 2021. By the end of 2022, one-third of all US shoppers will be on our platform, and by the end of 2024, that share will grow to two-thirds. By 2025, Bolt is projected to interact with eight out of every ten shoppers in the United States.

Our new capital will be used to fuel this explosive growth as we scale Bolt’s checkout operating system to our network. We’re allowing merchants to reclaim their relationships with their customers and enabling shoppers to check out with one-click ease.

Checkout on any page

We’ll use our funding to accelerate the pace of our product innovation, which will include tools that enable shoppers to checkout on any page on which they discover content—no link-outs, no redirecting to a retailer’s page, and, for 10M+ existing Bolt users, no registration or forms, just one click.

Checkout in any country

We’ll onboard more customers nationally and internationally. Brands in the Authentic Brands Group portfolio such as Aéropostale, Brooks Brothers, Eddie Bauer, and Nautica will be able to tap into Bolt’s network very soon.

Building consciously and expanding Conscious Culture

Our team has grown nearly 200% year-over-year, and we’ll continue to recruit top talent with a specific focus on scaling our product and engineering organizations. By living out our Conscious Culture on a daily basis, we’re setting the example of what it means to bridge humanity with execution to deliver 20X the impact.

This new chapter is a significant step forward for Bolt and a paradigm shift for commerce. Come join us for the ride!