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The Silicon Valley company cut jobs Wednesday in a fundraising environment for startups.
By Erin Woo
Bolt, the fast-growing online invoicing startup that was valued at $11 billion earlier this year but recently instituted a hiring freeze as the broader market faltered, began laying off staff on Wednesday.
In a message to workers that was also posted on Bolt’s website, Maju Kuruvilla, the chief executive, attributed the layoffs to “structural changes” amid “macro challenges”, but did not provide further details.
“The control team and I have made the resolution to protect our monetary situation, expand our runway and make a profit from the cash we have already raised,” Mr. Kuruvilla wrote.
The San Francisco-based company, which develops software to simplify the checkout process for merchants and shoppers, is already facing challenges, adding a lawsuit filed last year through one of its major clients.
This month, a New York Times investigation found that the company and one of its co-discoverers, Ryan Breslow, had inflated metrics and overpriced Bolt’s tech features in pursuit of ever-higher valuations. In April, Bolt announced a three-month contract. freeze.
Bolt, which had about 900 employees, according to its LinkedIn profile, and recently acquired a cryptocurrency company, is not in trouble.
Since the beginning of the year, a hundred startups have laid off workers amid deteriorating customers for startups, according to Layoffs. fyi, a participatory site that tracks layoffs at tech startups. In recent weeks, venture capital investment has dried up, as investors of all stripes, shaken by the prospect of worsening inflation, emerging interest rates and geopolitical uncertainty, have become more cautious. This has forced dozens of start-ups, which rely heavily on venture capital investment to grow their businesses, reduce costs.
Wednesday’s firings cap off a tumultuous time for Bolt. The company, which rose to an $11 billion valuation in January from $250 million just over 3 years ago, is being sued by its consumer Authentic Brands Group, a giant corporate holding company that owns and lays off brands. such as Brooks Brothers and Forever 21. The authentic brands said in the lawsuit that Bolt failed to fulfill the technological functions it promised. In his move to dismiss the lawsuit, Bolt challenged those allegations.
In his note, Kuruvilla did not tell staff how many of his colleagues were fired or which departments were fired. The day continued to fall, according to two former employees and one existing one.
By noon, it had been reduced to about 660 employees, they said.
Bolt declined to comment on Mr. M’s post. Kuruvilla.
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