Maju Kuruvilla is now not CEO of one-click checkout firm Bolt. He’s changed by Justin Grooms, Bolt’s international head of gross sales, who’s now interim CEO, according to Grooms’ LinkedIn profile.
Kuruvilla didn’t have a lot to say concerning the change however did affirm it each on LinkedIn and X, by posting, merely “One-Click on Checkedout from @bolt! Onwards” with a rocket emoji. (He declined to remark additional.) Arjun Sethi, a co-founder of the enterprise agency Tribe Capital, commented on his publish on LinkedIn, noting that it was “superb working with” the manager.
The Bolt board voted to take away him this weekend, The Information reported.
Kuruvilla, the previous Amazon govt, took over as CEO in January 2022 after founder Ryan Breslow stepped down.
Grooms joined Bolt 5 years in the past after serving in govt positions at firms, together with Ultraleap (previously Leap Movement), Datron World Communications and Qualcomm, his LinkedIn says. The corporate advised The Data that the CEO position had modified and mentioned that Kuruvilla’s departure was “amicable” however offered no additional particulars.
Bolt isn’t any stranger to controversy. Its then-27-year-old founder, Breslow, began the corporate after dropping out of Stanford and was typically identified for his very outspoken rants.
In an interview with TechCrunch’s Connie Loizos within the month he stepped down, he mentioned the corporate had signed roughly 10 main offers within the second half of 2021, with every being greater “than any that Bolt has signed within the firm’s historical past beforehand.”
However then the corporate confronted some struggles. Bolt was at one time the topic of a federal probe involving Breslow relating to whether or not the corporate violated any securities legal guidelines throughout fundraising in 2021. That’s when Bolt was searching for a $355 million Series E round that valued the corporate at $11 billion. The corporate raised around $1 billion in complete venture-backed funding.
There have been additionally a number of rounds of layoffs, together with one in May 2022 when it was reported a minimum of 185 workers, or one-third of its workforce, had been let go. Then one other in early 2023 and one in December 2023 that affected 29% of its workers.
In October, Kuruvilla, then CEO, advised TechCrunch that the SEC was now not trying into Bolt and that it was working toward profitability and had some new options within the pipeline, like enhancing merchandise returns and offering customized experiences round its common shopper community. The corporate introduced partnerships with retailers, together with Saks OFF 5TH, Shinola, Filson, Lafayette 148 and Toys “R” Us, in November.
Extra not too long ago, Bolt signed a deal with Checkout through which Bolt grew to become Checkout.com’s “unique one-click checkout supplier” and Checkout.com turning into “Bolt’s most well-liked cost accomplice.”
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