Fast Raises $102M in Latest Checkout Funding Round

This morning, Fast, a company specializing in online checkout and identity solutions, declared the completion of a $102 million Series B funding round. Stripe, an existing investor, spearheaded this latest investment.

Previously, Stripe, a major player in online payments, also led Fast’s Series A funding last year, which totaled $20 million. According to a company statement, Fast has now secured $124 million in funding overall.

TechCrunch contacted Fast to inquire about its rate of expansion. The company reported that the gross merchandise volume (GMV) handled by its checkout service has “increased more than threefold monthly,” and anticipates this pattern will persist and even accelerate. While it’s challenging to assess this growth without a baseline for comparison, we now have a benchmark for future GMV progress from Fast.

Fast’s substantial Series B round follows similar large funding injections into several competing online checkout companies.

In late December, Bolt, a provider of online checkout, identity, and payment services, secured a $75 million extension to its Series C funding. The company also disclosed several growth statistics, enabling TechCrunch to evaluate its current scale and future projections.

Mid-January saw Checkout.com raise $450 million, achieving a $15 billion valuation. TechCrunch observed at the time that “Checkout.com aims to become a comprehensive platform for all aspects of payments, including transaction acceptance, processing, and fraud detection.” This positions it as a competitor to both Bolt and certain aspects of Fast’s offerings.

Shortly after, Rapyd announced a $300 million raise at a $2.5 billion valuation. TechCrunch highlighted that Rapyd delivers fintech services through an API, but its support for global ecommerce payments and anti-fraud technology aligns it with this group of companies.

Including Fast’s new Series B, approximately $927 million — at a minimum — has been invested in startups targeting overlapping ecommerce infrastructure markets in the past month. This equates to nearly $26 million per day since the Bolt funding round, representing a significant influx of capital in a short timeframe.

The reason these companies are securing funding so quickly is likely due to the immense size and importance of ecommerce to the global economy. Enhancing the online buying and selling experience for both merchants and customers presents a substantial opportunity for numerous companies. The fact that so many startups are competing in this space suggests they are all experiencing robust growth, indicating a large potential market for expansion.

The surge in ecommerce following the COVID-19 pandemic, and the broader acceleration of digital transformation globally, further supports the idea that demand for these technologies will remain strong for the foreseeable future.