One-click checkout startup Bolt is feeling the revenue pinch after recently slashing merchant fees, The Information reported on Friday (April 29), citing internal documents it viewed.
After several funding rounds that pushed its valuation from $6 billion last October to $11 billion in January, Bolt is feeling the heat of newer one-click competitors like PayPal and Shopify, according to the report. Both PayPal and Shopify are some of the latest merchants following Amazon’s lead of offering one-click checkout buttons at the point of sale (POS).
See also: Headless Commerce Startup Bolt Eyes $14B Valuation
The company had been eyeing a $14 billion valuation last December following its $355 million Series E funding round. But since then, Bolt has undergone several changes, including the exit of founder Ryan Breslow as CEO. Breslow’s move to executive chair followed controversial tweets about funding and favoritism, which he has said were unrelated to his changed role, per the report.
After cutting the fees merchants pay for its services, Bolt last year saw an estimated 10% revenue boost to $28 million, the document viewed by The Information showed. The number of merchants it’s doing business with has grown to 363.
Read more: Bolt to Purchase Crypto Startup Wyre for $1.5B
Founded in 2014 and headquartered in San Francisco, the startup has raised close to $1 billion to date and has acquired several companies, including crypto startup Wyre Payments in a deal worth reportedly worth around $1.5 billion, PYMNTS reported earlier this month.
Related: Bolt CEO: Commerce Identity, Checkout Operating System Makes One-Click Checkout Ubiquitous
Bolt’s current CEO Maju Kuruvilla was with the company for about a year as its chief operating officer (COO) and hails from Amazon, where he was its chief technology and product officer.
He told PYMNTS’ Karen Webster in an interview last month that Bolt is committed to creating the “perfect checkout experience” and one-click checkout is a key driver, especially as shoppers make purchasing decisions outside of a merchant’s ecosystem.
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