Payments Startup Bolt Hires Amazon Exec Maju Kuruvilla as CTO

E-commerce checkout startup Bolt has hired former Amazon exec Maju Kuruvilla as its first CTO. Kuruvilla most recently served as VP and GM of Global Mile, Amazon's international shipping and logistics organization, where he helped lead its global fulfillment and logistics teams.

Kuruvilla will lead the product and engineering teams for the rapidly growing startup, which is expected to double in size in 2021.

Bolt is a one-click checkout startup on a mission to help smaller retailers take on the giant online marketplace. It's a self proclaimed "better-than-Amazon checkout experience for the rest of the internet".

Founded in 2014, the company experienced rapid growth in 2020. It doubled its users, and signed Authentic Brands Group, the parent company to major retailers like Aéropostale, Forever 21, and Lucky Brand Jeans. It also built partnerships with big marketplace players like BigCommerce.

Of the 4.5 million users on Bolt's platform, 2.2 million were added in the second half of 2020.

Converting browsers to buyers is a challenge for all online retailers. Few have solved the problem of cart abandonment like Amazon, which has a completely seamless, one-click checkout. Bolt wants to democratize e-commerce by making this technology available to independent retailers, in order to level the playing field.

Bolt has raised $215 million from investors to date. The company was last valued at $500 million after its Series C fundraising round in July. It then added a further $75 million to its Series C round in December, which doubled its value, meaning it’s now valued at around $1 billion.

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