Bolt Financial, the payments startup, is facing troubled times as it begins to cut staff, according to Maju Kuruvilla, CEO, in a memo to employees, Bloomberg wrote Wednesday (May 25).
Kuruvilla said it was “no secret” that the market conditions in the industry had been changing.
“In an effort to ensure Bolt owns its own destiny, the leadership team and I have made the decision to secure our financial position.”
The report says a spokeswoman for Bolt didn’t say how many jobs would be cut.
The company’s software aims to give retailers one-click online checkout options. However, the company has struggled lately, as it was sued by its most prominent customer, claiming the tech didn’t work as promised.
In addition, a recent fundraising effort didn’t work out either, the report said.
Kuruvilla, in the memo, said the startup would try to become profitable with “the money we have already raised.”
Bolt was recently valued at $11 billion, making it one of the most valuable startups in the U.S. Bolt was also known for the tweets of Ryan Breslow, one of the company’s co-founders. He claimed in a series of tweets earlier this year that Silicon Valley was a “boys club” and was full of mob bosses. He stepped down as CEO soon after that and became executive chairman.
See also: Authentic Brands Sues Bolt, Claiming $150M in Lost Sales
PYMNTS wrote that Authentic Brands Group was suing Bolt, saying that the payments company hadn’t delivered on its promises and cost ABG $150 million in sales.
Bolt had “utterly failed” to make the technological capabilities it promised work.
And a report said Bolt had raised funds at very high values by “overstating” the nature of its integration with ABG.
ABG said the integration with Forever 21’s mobile app was “disastrous.” The company said it had led to fewer purchases.
Bolt responded with its own filing and said ABG’s suit was meritless, a “transparent attempt” to negotiate the agreement.
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