Fast, the San Francisco startup that aimed to revolutionize online shopping with one-click technology but was reportedly running out of cash and looking for a buyer, is ceasing operations, the company announced Tuesday morning on Twitter.
“After making great strides in our mission of making buying and selling frictionless for everyone we have made the difficult decision to close our doors,” co-founder and CEO Domm Holland said in the statement. “While you'll no longer see the Fast button at checkout, we are incredibly proud of the team we assembled and our work to democratize commerce through Fast' one-click checkout experience.”
Insider reported that Fast employees' last day will be Friday and that the company had reached a deal with Affirm (NASDAQ:AFRM), another San Francisco fintech, to hire on most of its engineers, citing screen shots from within the company
The company, founded by Holland and Allison Barr Allen in 2019, had raised $124.5 million to date and had a valuation of $584.3 million as of January 2021. Backers included Stripe, Addition, Index Ventures and Kleiner Perkins.
The Information reported last week that the company was seeking a buyer after now being able to raise a new funding round, saying it was burning through $10 million in cash every month, mostly on payroll. The technology news site said it has hired around 400 employees last year. The Business Times reported it employed 75 in the Bay Area and 162 companywide as of last July, according to our list of largest fintechs in the Bay Area. Last year, it opened a Tampa Bay office.
The Information said Fast had been trying to raise $100 million at a valuation of $450 million. Holland had told investors it would slash its 500-person staff in half to curb its cash burn, the site said.
Holland was the subject of an NPR story in February highlighting how he reinvented himself in Silicon Valley while leaving a past in Australia littered with failed business ventures.
According to the story he previously founded an Australian startup called Tow.com.au that billed itself as the "Uber of towing." The company got an exclusive deal with the Queensland Police to handle dispatching towing jobs to third-party drivers. When the company began running out of money due legal disputes with towing companies and the local government, Holland threatened to sell personal information of its customers on the black market in an interview with the Australian Broadcasting Service.
