Checkout Solution Startup Fast Closes $20M Series A Led By Stripe

Login and checkout startup Fast closed a $20 million Series A funding round led by Stripe, Fast said in a statement on Thursday (March 26).

Previous investors Index Ventures and Susa Ventures also contributed to the funding. The money will be used to advance the company’s worldwide launch of its universal one-click buying solution Fast Checkout. The funds will also go towards expanding its product and adding to its staff of engineers.

“This funding rapidly accelerates Fast’s ability to improve the checkout process for billions of people and businesses around the world,” said Fast CEO and co-founder Domm Holland. “Now, more than ever, we need to dramatically improve the eCommerce checkout experience, which has remained stagnant for 30 years. We have an even greater commitment to fulfilling our mission of making buying online fast, easy and safe for everyone.”

Fast Checkout is a complement to the company’s free Fast Login solution. Fast plans to introduce the new tool in a few weeks. The Fast Checkout tool enables eCommerce shoppers to buy goods and services with just one click and works with any electronic device or browser. 

Customers have to fill in an average of 23 fields to make a single online purchase, adding to the frustration of friction at checkout. These issues largely accounted for the roughly 80 percent of shopping carts abandoned last year, which has been a continuing problem for the $3.5 trillion worldwide eCommerce market. 

With Fast, there is no need to recall passwords or key in payment information. 

“Fast is taking a novel approach to improving the login and checkout process for online businesses,” said Jordan Angelos, head of corporate development at Stripe. “We support their vision to remove friction from internet commerce wherever possible.”

Co-founded by Holland and chief operations officer (COO) Allison Barr Allen in March 2019, the startup is headquartered in Silicon Valley and raised 2.5 million in its November 2019 seed round. A serial entrepreneur, Holland has launched and led numerous startups in Australia. Allen is an angel investor and comes from the Uber Money Team, where she was the head of global product operations. 

“This funding rapidly accelerates Fast’s ability to improve the checkout process for billions of people and businesses around the world,” said Holland. “Now, more than ever, we need to dramatically improve the eCommerce checkout experience, which has remained stagnant for 30 years. We have an even greater commitment to fulfilling our mission of making buying online fast, easy and safe for everyone.” 

Holland said he was inspired to launch Fast when his son was in the hospital for a short time and his wife’s grandmother wanted to help out by buying groceries online. 

“What was meant to be a quick transaction turned into a vexing, time-consuming struggle when Holland’s grandmother-in-law couldn’t remember her password or reset it,” according to the statement. Fast eliminates that problem because no passwords are needed.

Passwords and login struggles are frequent problems for eCommerce platforms and tech companies. Facebook, for example, was unaware for years that its login process was stored in plain text and searchable by thousands of Facebook employees.