Headquartered in San Francisco, California, Bolt Financial, Inc. (“Bolt”), is a global leader in the One-Click checkout process for online retailers, and a member of the 2021 Forbes Fintech 50 list.  The company has developed a platform that connects retailers with millions of shoppers in a unified network, simplifying the online buying process for both.  With Bolt accounts, all purchases are lightning fast with no repeat logins and passwords required.  Bolt has also successfully integrated leading fraud protection into its solution; in fact, the company has the ability to cover all chargebacks for each retailer on its platform, highlighting the confidence it has in its fraud prevention capabilities.

Bolt’s solution for One-Click checkout allows retailers on its platform to treat millions of checkout-ready shoppers like returning customers, thereby solving a key problem associated with online transaction processing – namely, that up to 70% of purchase transactions are abandoned at checkout.  The major problem that ecommerce sites experience is that shoppers don’t complete a purchase because they get mired in payment and password fields.  Bolt’s code sits above the checkout experience, allowing its system to remember payment information of shoppers who have previously bought from another business on the platform.  As a Bolt customer, you may have previously purchased clothing from Forever21 and subsequently benefitted from a seamless check-out experience when buying luggage from Swiss Gear, or any other retailer on the platform.

The company has been a disruptive force within the online marketplace eco-system and based on recent statistics, consumers enjoy using its application.  Over the past six months, 2.4 million shoppers have created Bolt accounts, bringing the total number of unique shoppers on its platform to 10 million and counting.  Bolt’s ease of checkout has also translated into a sales conversion rate that is 50% higher when compared to traditional guest checkout.  Moreover, 96% of retailers on Bolt’s platform have already benefitted from cross network purchases, validating the power of the platform.

When dealing with checkout experience, retailers focus on three key areas:
1)            Checkout Platform
2)           Payment Processing  
3)           Fraud detection

Many merchants have three different providers for each of these services.  For example, Badgley Mischka, a retailer for red-carpet-ready dresses, uses big commerce for checkout, Braintree for payment processing and Kount for fraud prevention. As opposed to piecing together different components of the checkout experience that might not always fit well together, Bolt offers an integrated version that works.  Using Bolt for the entire checkout process means that the underlying merchant deals with one vendor; meanwhile, the customer is less likely to walk away from an on-line transaction, because of a buying experience that is much easier and smoother.

In late 2020, Bolt signed on its largest customer Authentic Brands Group (ABG).  It is the second largest brand management company in the world with 50+ retailers, 50 million customers and over $14 billion in annual sales.  Brooks Brothers, Forever21, Lucky Brand, Nautica, Eddie Bauer and Aeropostale are some of the brands under the ABG banner.
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Bolt is the type of innovative and disruptive business that Stack Capital seeks to invest into, and its outlook is exciting.  Led by Ryan Breslow (CEO), Bolt has already reached critical mass, established product market fit, and is on a path towards accelerated growth.  The $393 million USD from its recent round, which included several prominent private equity investors, will enable Bolt to achieve economies of scale, in addition to increases its user base, brand, and overall business.


‍INVESTMENT OVERVIEW
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Proven ability to deliver higher sales conversion rates and reduced fraud
‍·        Bolt’s account checkout rate is 75% - significantly higher than that of its competitors
·        Bolt’s solution has resulted in a 50% increase in online sales conversion rates
·        96% of existing Bolt retailers have benefitted from cross-network purchases
·        Bolt’s system has been specifically designed to better detect payment fraud, identify high-risk transactions, and reduce the number of false positives

Growth inflection point
‍·        2.4 million Bolt accounts have been opened over the past six months
·        10 million registered shopper accounts, and counting
·        When asked, 82% of shoppers prefer the benefits associated with One-Click Checkout
·        Based on committed deals, ~11% of US shoppers will be part of Bolt’s network by the end of 2021
·        Growth capital will be used to increase the number of retailers and customers on the platform, in addition to implementing innovative features (such as
         check-out ability from any page)


TO ACCESS A PDF COPY OF STACK'S INVESTMENT OVERVIEW ON BOLT, PLEASE CLICK HERE.


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