Maju Kuruvilla is no longer the CEO of the one-click checkout company Bolt. Replaced by Justin Grooms, Bolt’s global head of sales, who is now interim CEO, according to Grooms’ LinkedIn profile.
Kuruvila I didn’t have much to say about the change, but it confirmed it in both LinkedIn and Xby post, simply “Check out with one click from @bolt! Forward” with a rocket emoji. (He declined to comment further.) Arjun Sethi, co-founder of the venture firm Tribal capitalcommented on his LinkedIn post, noting that the executive was “amazing to work with.”
Bolt’s board of directors voted to remove him this weekend, The information mentionted.
Kuruvilla, a former Amazon executive, took over as CEO January 2022 after founder Ryan Breslow resigned.
Grooms joined Bolt five years ago after serving in executive positions at companies including; Ultraleap (formerly Leap Motion), Datron World Communications and Qualcomm, his LinkedIn says. The company told The Information that the CEO’s role had changed and said Kuruvilla’s departure was “amicable,” but did not elaborate.
Bolt is no stranger to controversy. Its then 27-year-old founder, Breslowhe started the company after dropping out of Stanford and was generally known for his very outspoken rants.
In an interview with TechCrunch’s Connie Loizos in the month he stepped down, he said the company had signed about 10 major deals in the second half of 2021, each bigger “than anything Bolt has signed in the history of the company before.”
But then the company faced some struggles. Bolt it was once a matter of a federal investigation which concerns Breslow about if the company violated any securities laws while raising funds in 2021. That’s when Bolt sought $355 million Series E round which valued the company at $11 billion. The company raised about $1 billion in total business-backed financing.
There were also several rounds of layoffs, including one in May 2022 when it was reported that at least 185 workers, or a third of its workforce, were laid off. Then another inside beginning of 2023 and one in December 2023 which affected 29% of its staff.
In October, Kuruvilla, then the CEO, told TechCrunch that the SEC was no longer looking into Bolt and that worked for profitability and had some new features in the works, such as improving merchandise returns and providing personalized experiences around its global network of shoppers. The company announced partnerships with retailers including Saks OFF 5TH, Shinola, Filson, Lafayette 148 and Toys “R” Us in November.
More recently, Bolt signed a deal with Checkout in which Bolt became Checkout.com’s “exclusive one-click checkout provider” and Checkout.com became “Bolt’s preferred payment partner.”
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