E-commerce & fintech firm Bolt lays off 29% of staff

US-based e-commerce and fintech company Bolt has confirmed it laid off 29 per cent of its staff.

According to a Bolt spokesperson, the company made the cuts to get Bolt to “an operating model optimised for sustainable growth and efficiency”, reports TechCrunch.

“We made the difficult but important decision to reduce layers and roles across the company — setting ourselves up with the speed and agility required for the next phase of our business,” the company was quoted as saying.

This new round of layoffs, which occurred last week, follows a number of earlier layoffs announced by the company since 2022. One occurred in May 2022, when it was reported that at least 185 employees, or one-third of the employment, were laid off. Another occurred earlier this year, the report mentioned.

The company has raised approximately $1 billion in total venture-backed capital and was once valued at $11 billion.

Earlier this month, music streaming giant Spotify announced to eliminate about 17 per cent of its workforce across the company as it looks to become “both productive and efficient”.

Spotify founder and CEO Daniel Ek cited slowing economic growth and increased capital costs as reasons for the layoffs, claiming that the company used lower-cost capital in 2020 and 2021 to invest heavily in the business.

Spotify employs about 8,800 people, and this job cut move will impact over 1,500 employees.