Fintech startup Bolt reportedly raising $450M at $14B valuation

Bolt Financial Inc., a well-funded startup that provides software for e-commerce companies, is reportedly seeking a new $450 million investment.

The Information reported the fundraising effort today, citing an investor letter penned by Bolt interim Chief Executive Officer Justin Grooms. The memo also disclosed that company founder Ryan Breslow will return to the helm as CEO. Breslow left in May 2022 following a Twitter tirade against Bolt rival Stripe Inc. and Y Combinator.

San Francisco-based Bolt offers a suite of cloud services that online retailers can use to process customer purchases. The company’s flagship offering is a platform that allows consumers to create a shopping account and reuse it across multiple e-commerce websites. This arrangement removes the need to create a separate account in every online store, which speeds up the checkout process.

Bolt also offers a number of complementary services. There’s a prepackaged checkout page that allows online retailers to offer discounts, gift cards and loyalty program memberships. Another Bolt tool eases the task of providing package tracking features to customers.

The company says that its services are used by over 80 million consumers worldwide. According to Bolt, its software can increase the chance that visitors to an e-commerce website will become paying customers by 13%. The company is also promising to help online retailers turn more customers into repeat buyers.

When Bolt founder Ryan Breslow stepped down as CEO in 2022, Business Insider reported that the company was hoping to raise capital at a $14 billion valuation. The new $450 million investment it’s reportedly seeking is expected to value it at the same amount. Bolt is said to be raising the capital from two investment firms in the UK and UAE.

According to The Information, equity funding will account for less than half the $450 million investment. Bolt is expected to receive $250 million in the form of “marketing credits” from U.K. investment firm The London Fund.

The company will reportedly create a strong incentive for its existing backers to participate in the round. Bolt has asked those investors to participate “in a proportion that is double their existing percentage stake.” If they opt against doing so, the company will reportedly buy back many of their shares for about a penny apiece.

Last year, a Bolt investor reportedly sued Breslow for allegedly using company funds to pay back a personal loan on which he had defaulted. This past May, Breslow proposed canceling millions of his shares in the software maker to end the lawsuit.

Bolt’s latest fundraising effort comes about a month after TechCrunch reported that rival Stripe had achieved a $70 billion valuation. That’s up from $50 billion last March, but still less than the $95 billion the company was worth after a $600 million funding round in 2021.

Image: Bolt