Bolt is looking to raise new money on aggressive terms

Breslow left the company in early 2022 due to conflicts with investors. The 30-year-old entrepreneur’s career has been marked by controversy, including lawsuits, a feud with an early investor and a public spat with competitors Stripe and Y Combinator.

Bolt’s interim CEO, Justin Grooms, wrote in a letter to investors reviewed by The Information that the company is raising $450 million in a Series F round that would value Bolt at more than $14 billion. dollars. According to Newcomer, Bolt’s annual revenue was $28 million and his gross profit was $7 million.

The deal comes with several other eyebrow-raising clauses that would further benefit Breslow, Newcomer and The Information reported:

• Breslow would receive an option to sell 10% of his shares and the right to buy Bolt subsidiaries conscious.org and fourdayweek.com from the company for $1 at any time. Breslow advocated a four-day work week.
• He would also receive a new equity grant that would be “no less than the 90th percentile of the CEO equity compensation packages of Bolt’s industry peers.”
• If Bolt reaches a $50 billion valuation in a fundraising of $100 million or more, Breslow would receive an additional equity grant of 5 percent of Bolt’s issued and outstanding shares.
• The company would partner with Love, a wellness marketplace run by Breslow since being ousted from Bolt.
• Bolt is reportedly investing $10 million in The London Fund, a venture capital firm that appears to be one of the lead investors in its current funding round. Information reported Breslow is a director at the fund, which also invested in Love.

Bolt’s investors were also told that they would have to come up with more money for this funding round. If they fail to do so, Bolt would buy most of them for one cent a share, a particularly aggressive move in the startup world, Newcomer reported.

The proposal requires the approval of a majority of investors, and shareholders have from Monday evening until Wednesday to decide, The Information reported.

Bolt’s previous investors include BlackRock, Sequoia Capital, Founders Fund and Intuit, per PitchBook.

Neither Bolt nor Breslow immediately responded to Business Insider’s requests for comment outside of standard business hours.