Bolt founder Ryan Breslow has returned to the company as CEO and is raising $450 million in new investment from the United Arab Emirates and the United Kingdom. The new value of the company is estimated at 14 billion dollars.
This assessment can be considered a serious turning point for Bolt. Because earlier this year, the company offered a share buyback program for investors, and at that time Bolt's value was set at only $300 million.
In 2020-21, Bolt was one of the most successful startups. The company raised $355 million in investment led by BlackRock in 2021, valuing the company at $11 billion as a result of high demand for online commerce during the pandemic.
However, things quickly began to deteriorate for this San Francisco-based startup. Lawsuits, financial disputes and other problems caused the company's name to draw negative headlines. In early 2022, Ryan Breslow stepped down as CEO after criticizing Y Combinator and Stripe on Twitter. The company announced layoffs in the middle of that year, just six months after its $11 billion valuation, and there have been at least three layoffs since then.
The company has also undergone a number of management changes and experienced problems with investors. Earlier this year, former CEO Maju Kuruvilla also left the company.
Bolt is an American financial technology startup that provides merchants with software to facilitate one-click online payments. It was founded in 2014 in San Francisco.
