Bolt announced that the company plans to buy Wyre digital currency provider Wyre for $1.5 billion on Thursday. Bolt has explained the acquisition is aimed at bolstering cryptocurrency services and “the opportunity of Web3.”
Wyre acquires payments and checkout firm
The e-commerce platform Bolt has revealed a definitive agreement to acquire Wyre, according to the company’s press statements published on Thursday. The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported that the transaction was the biggest in crypto company acquisitions, in terms of total financial settlement size. It was worth approximately $1.5 billion. Bolt did not release financial information about the transaction.
The announcement explains that the companies aim to “decentralize commerce” and “simplify digital shopping.” Both Bolt and Wyre plan to “close the transaction and fully integrate before the end of the year, and once complete, the acquisition will bring the power of Bolt’s CheckoutOS—one-click checkout, authentication, payments, and fraud protection—to the cryptocurrency ecosystem.”
CEO of Bolt: ‘Acquisition Will Pave the Way for Seamless, Secure Crypto Transactions’
According to Bolt, the partnership will benefit millions of Bolt network customers who have access to digital currencies. Bolt detailed that “hundreds of retailers” can now accept crypto assets for goods and services. Furthermore, Bolt users will be able to acquire non-fungible tokens (NFTs) via Wyre’s APIs.
“Our merchant and retail partners expect us to always be innovating on their behalf—because their customers demand it,” the CEO of Bolt, Maju Kuruvilla said in a statement. “That’s why it’s such a thrill to announce this acquisition, which is yet another step that Bolt has taken to improve the buying experience.” The Bolt executive added:
The acquisition opens the door to seamless and secure crypto transactions as well as NFT support for retailers. Consumers and retailers both will enjoy a seamless buying experience that fully supports NFT and crypto natively.
Wyre is a platform for blockchain payments that Ioannis Gianaros and Michael Dunworth co-founded in 2013. Wyre is a blockchain-connected platform that offers fiat to crypto onramps and payment APIs. Wyre was able to raise $5.8million in Series A financing from Draper Associates, Digital Currency Group (DCG), and Amphora Capital. Ryan Breslow, an engineer and entrepreneur from Bolt, founded the e-commerce business in 2014 one year after Wyre.
According to Olga Kharif, Bloomberg author, Bolt had $1 billion annually in payment volume for January 2019. Bolt received $22 million from a Series A in 2018, and $68 million from Activant Capital and Tribe Capital in 2019. Other Bolt investors include Stanford’s Startx Fund, Floodgate, Naval Ravikant, Tom Proulx, and Jake Seid.
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