Lots of optimism in checkout technology

Lots of money is being put into the checkout space, a particular e-commerce pain point. Startup Bolt, for instance, raised US$355 million earlier this month.

The investment round was led by BlackRock along with new investors such as Schonfeld and Invus Opportunities as well as existing investors including Activant Capital and Moore Strategic Ventures. This round pushes Bolt’s valuation to US$11 billin, and total funding to nearly US$ 1 billion, according to reports.

Founded in 2014 by Eric Feldman and Ryan Breslow, Bolt is located in San Francisco. The checkout platform provides services to help retailers manage customer checkout, payment processing and fraud detection.

The startup plans on deploying the funds to hire more engineers and product developers. It is also preparing to expand internationally.

“We’re very proud to partner with this prestigious group of investors as we accelerate our product development, hire top product and engineering talent, ramp up our strategic investments, forge more partnerships, expand internationally, and roll out more Conscious Culture initiatives to transform workplaces for the better,” said Breslow.

Bolt is said to be seeking another US$400 million funding round at an even higher valuation of US$14 billion.

Bolt competes with players like Fast and Checkout.com, the latter has just raised US$1 billion at a US$40 billion valuation, a double of the valuation a year ago.

The flow of deals and rapidly rising valuation indicate intense enthusiasm for potential leaders of checkout technology targeted at merchants competing with Amazon.

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