Fintech unicorn Bolt is buying crypto startup, Wyre, for $1.5 billion. The cash-and-stock deal for Wyre, founded in 2013, adds crypto payment capabilities to Bolt’s e-commerce checkout technology.
Wyre has raised $29.1 million from venture investors, including a raise in January 2021 led by blockchain investor Stellar Development Foundation.
San Francisco-based Bolt has raised a total of $1 billion from private investors, including $355 million most recently as part of its Series E raise. The company is valued at an estimated $11 billion, according to The Crunchbase Unicorn Board.
The Wyre acquisition is expected to close in the third or fourth quarter of this year. The deal will integrate San Francisco-based Wyre’s blockchain technology into Bolt, rather than have the crypto company operate independently.
Bolt most recently acquired Tipser, a Stockholm-based content monetization platform, for $200 million in November.
“This acquisition will pave the way for seamless, secure crypto transactions, and NFT enablement for our retailers,” said Bolt Chief Executive Officer Maju Kuruvilla. “Both consumers and retailers will benefit from a friction-free buying experience that supports crypto and NFT natively.”
Wyre is the second startup that Bolt has acquired. Previously, it bought Tipser Shopping AB, a Sweden-based startup with a platform that helps companies more easily add e-commerce features to their websites. Bolt turned Tipser’s technology into a feature called Bolt Commerce Everywhere.
Bolt has also been expanding its feature set through organic product development efforts. The startup recently released integrations that make it easier to add its service to online stores built using software from Adobe Inc. and BigCommerce Inc., a publicly traded maker of e-commerce tools. Earlier, Bolt introduced data analytics features that retailers can use to track metrics such as the average value of customer purchases.
Published By – Damandeep Singh
Edited By-Kritika Kashyap
