Bolt's controversial co-founder Ryan Breslow, who returned as CEO earlier this month, said Monday that he sparked a legal battle and helped him (temporary) expulsion over the $30 million personal loan he took from the company.
Breslow has also announced that Bolt will launch “all apps” that will “soon” integrate all one-click checkouts from Crypto to Financial Services.
The legal battle over loan began in 2023 when an active Bolt investor sued Breslow. Activant alleged that Breslow added the startup with a $30 million debt by borrowing that amount and paying back the default.
The lawsuit was finally resolved, and Bolt agreed to buy back Activant's shares for $37 million last year.
At the Fintech Meetup in Las Vegas yesterday, Breslow defended the loan, framing it as an act of loyalty to Bolt, rather than the self-dealing claimed by the Activity Lawsuit.
He said he took the loan in exchange for selling the shares in a Secordaries transaction, and said the loan was unanimously approved by Bolt's board of directors.
“It was done to become a Provolt,” Breslow said. “Instead of selling a meaningful second, I took it out. I wanted to show all investors that I keep all the chips, but I believe a lot of stocks so I'm not selling stocks.”
Breslow said he thought he had enough time to pay off the loan and waited for Bolt to do so. He said the board called the loan after leaving the CEO role.
Bolt's outspoken founder, Breslow resigned as CEO in early 2022. During this year's return, he is also faced with allegations that he misinterpreted investors, inflated metrics and violated security laws while supplying funds while running the company for the last time.
On Monday, Breslow admitted to making “a lot of mistakes” but they said he was not accused of. He had seen the main mistakes that allowed him to “have not known very well” (without specifying who) to join the Bolt cap table.
“Super App” of the work
Now that he's back as CEO, he says Bolt will soon launch a new “super app” that will integrate Bolt's one-click checkout e-commerce experience into a wide range of services.
“Instead of a one-click checkout, you're going to click on one app, all in one app, whether it's financial services, peer-to-peer, encryption, cards, financial products,” he said.
Breslow compared Bolt to the UK's Fintech Revolut. This was valued at $45 billion last year, and while Bolt claims to have 80 million “wallets” compared to Revolut's 45 million people, Bolt admits that he has “not monetized consumers yet.”
In fact, Bolt's AR was around $28 million with a total profit of around $28 million as of the end of March 2024. This is smaller than Revolut, which announced its revenue of $2.2 billion and profit of $545 million (pre-tax) in 2023 alone.
The big remaining issue with Bolt is the next funding status. In August, news broke that a $450 million fundraising agreement was pending. However, it raised questions about the unusual use of $250 million in “marketing credits” and the lack of confirmation from investors who were misidentified as its lead.
Some Bolt investors, including BlackRock and Hedosophia, have appealed to block the round, Forbes reported, but it was voluntarily rejected by all parties, Bolt announced today.
In his speech, Breslow said that the legal case against him was “fully resolved and rejected” but did not provide any updates on the $450 million funding.
However, he commented that his experience has made him “humble” and found his faith and himself, and a new resolve to run Bolt after his startup was challenged.
“You know, I'm obviously making a mistake, but I have a very large tip on my shoulder,” he said. “I'm really ready to take the bolts to a new height.”
BlackRock and Hedosophia did not respond to requests for comment.