Bolt Raises $355 Million in Series E Funding With Funds and Accounts Managed by BlackRock, Schonfeld, H.I.G. Growth, and Invus Opportunities — Powering the Next Phase of Growth in the Commerce Race

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Ecommerce catapulted forward a decade in the first three months of the pandemic as independent retailers turned to digital tools to survive. But that historic shift also highlighted the shortcoming of an online buying experience that remains complicated and cumbersome.Since Bolt’s founding, we’ve relentlessly focused on improving that experience. Through CheckoutOS and our growing network of tens of millions of shoppers ready for one-click-checkout, we’ve helped democratize commerce for retailers and made shopping better for consumers.2021 was a massive year for us. And we’re only just getting started.<h2>~30X valuation in ~30 months</h2>Today, we’re announcing new growth fuel: $355 million in the first part of our Series E funding at ~30X our valuation ~30 months ago, and nearly double our valuation just three months ago. New investors that participated in this round include Schonfeld, Invus Opportunities, H.I.G. Growth, Credit Ease, and funds &amp; accounts managed by BlackRock, as well as return investors Activant Capital and Moore Strategic Ventures. This new raise brings Bolt’s total funding to nearly $1 billion. It also validates the powerful work we’re doing in this space, and it gives us the resources to expand our team and offerings so that our retail partners are ready for the future of commerce.“We couldn't be more excited to join Bolt on its journey to revolutionize online shopping, one checkout at a time,” said Michael Kuchmek, Global Head of Equity Capital Markets at Schonfeld. “Through getting to know its management team, product innovation, marquee retailers, and remarkable partnerships struck, we have full confidence in Bolt’s ability to further simplify and democratize the checkout experience, helping both merchants and shoppers along the way.”“Bolt is a category-leading checkout technology company delivering a seamless checkout experience for shoppers while meaningfully boosting conversion and revenue for merchants,” said Ross Hiatt, Co-Head of H.I.G. Growth Partners. “We are excited to partner with Ryan and the incredible team at Bolt in their mission to empower merchants, brands, platforms, and publishers with the technology and infrastructure to provide a best-in-class checkout experience for consumers.”“There is a huge opportunity to improve the online checkout experience, and retailers are realizing that they are losing customers as a result," said Ben Tsai, Partner at Invus Opportunities. "Bolt has a growing network of tens of millions of shoppers who benefit from the ease of one-click checkout across Bolt’s expanding network of retailers. We’re pleased to support Ryan and the ambitious Bolt team, and see tremendous opportunity in the space that Bolt is disrupting.”<h2>2021 in review</h2>At Bolt, 2021 has been one for the books. It’s tough to capture all we did this year, but here are a few highlights from the reel:<ul><li>We unveiled new products like <a href="https://www.bolt.com/blog/introducing-bolt-sso-commerce/">SSO Commerce™</a>, which redefines customer logins and unites store accounts with Bolt accounts</li><li>We <a href="https://www.bolt.com/blog/bolt-europe/">expanded into Europe</a> and launched new customers like Benefit Cosmetics, which has seen significant gains in conversion across their websites</li><li>We forged new strategic partnerships with <a href="https://www.bolt.com/blog/bolt-adobe-commerce-partnership/">Adobe</a> and <a href="https://www.bolt.com/blog/bolt-europe/">PrestaShop</a> and acquired <a href="https://www.bolt.com/blog/bolt-acquires-tipser-and-launches-remote-checkout/">Swedish-based Tipser</a>, a startup that enables shopping on any digital surface.</li></ul>Thanks to our merchant partners, Bolt grew its gross merchandise value per merchant by 80 percent, increased accounts by 180 percent year-over-year, and grew transactions by a staggering 200 percent over last year.As we’ve said from the beginning, when Bolt grows, our retailers win. Looking back at the data from this year, we’re proud to share that our retailers experienced a 50 percent higher conversion rate, a 38 percent faster checkout time, a 66 percent higher repeat purchase rate, and a 54 percent increase in store account creations when they use Bolt.And we’re just scratching the surface of this commerce revolution. Over the next 18 months, 100M shoppers are lined up to join the Bolt network.All of this happened because of the best-in-class Bolt team. With nearly 600 employees working remotely across 200+ cities, we doubled down on experimentation this year and have launched forward-thinking workplace experiences to reshape our industry. We launched the <a href="https://conscious.org/">Conscious Culture</a> movement and are proud to be the first tech unicorn to successfully implement a <a href="https://www.bolt.com/blog/switching-four-day-workweek/">four-day workweek</a>.The industry took notice: We won several honors over the past few months, including the Forbes Fintech 50, Inc. 5000, Deloitte Tech Fast 500, and Fast Company Best Workplaces for Tech Innovators, among many others.<h2>2022; We’re ready for you</h2>We’re democratizing commerce. We’re transforming the workplace. And with this new round of investment, we’ll be able to do more, faster. In 2022, we’ll accelerate the rate of our product development and adoption, increase hiring of product and engineering talent, ramp up our strategic corporate investments, forge more win-win partnerships, launch Bolt in more international markets, and roll out more Conscious Culture initiatives to drive meaningful change at work.We’re ready to go. 🚀⚡️