Maju Kuruvilla is not CEO of one-click checkout firm Bolt. He’s changed by Justin Grooms, Bolt’s world head of gross sales, who’s now interim CEO, in keeping with Grooms’ LinkedIn profile.
Kuruvilla didn’t have a lot to say concerning the change however did verify 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 reportedly “voted to take away him this weekend,” The Info reported.
Kuruvilla, the previous Amazon government, took over as CEO in January 2022 after founder Ryan Breslow famously stepped down.
Grooms joined Bolt 5 years in the past after serving in government positions at corporations, together with Ultraleap (previously Leap Movement), Datron World Communications and Qualcomm, his LinkedIn says. The corporate informed The Info that the CEO function had modified and mentioned that Kuruvilla’s departure was “amicable” however supplied no additional particulars.
Bolt is not any stranger to controversy. Its then-27-year-old founder, Breslow, began the corporate after dropping out of Stanford. He stepped down as CEO in January 2022, and was typically recognized for his very outspoken rants.
In an interview with TechCrunch’s Connie Loizos that very same month, 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 concerning whether or not the corporate violated any securities legal guidelines throughout fundraising in 2021. That’s when Bolt was looking for a $355 million Collection E spherical that valued the corporate at $11 billion. The corporate raised round $1 billion in whole venture-backed funding.
And there have been a number of rounds of layoffs, together with one in Could 2022 when it was reported no less than 185 staff, 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, informed TechCrunch that the SEC was not wanting into Bolt and that it was working towards profitability and had some new options within the pipeline, like enhancing merchandise returns and offering personalised 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 lately, Bolt signed a take care of Checkout wherein Bolt turned Checkout.com’s “unique one-click checkout supplier” and Checkout.com turning into “Bolt’s most popular fee companion.”
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