Fast Times in Silicon Valley

Online checkout startup Fast – which was valued at ~$580 million in its latest funding round – is shutting down for good, according to CEO Domm Holland.

💳 The (juicy) deets... The one-click checkout company raised nearly $125 million from investors, including payments giant Stripe and VC firm Index Ventures.

• It ran into trouble earlier this year when executives attempted to raise another funding round valuing Fast at over $1 billion, but received... erhm... limited investor interest.
• Last year, the company hired around 400 employees and spent up to $10 million per month – but its core business generated just $600,000 in revenue, per The Information (paywalled).

💬 What they're saying: Several Fast employees told NPR that Holland had poured significant funds into high salaries and deals aimed at creating marketing buzz, including partnerships with sports teams.

🌐 Zoom out: In the five years since Amazon's patent on one-click checkout expired, dozens of companies have commercialized their own solutions.

• PayPal and Apple are among the largest companies in the industry today; Fast was attempting to carve out a place alongside smaller competitors like Bolt and Shopify.