Payment Solution Fast.co Shuts Down Operations

San Francisco based tech-startup Fast.co announced Tuesday it’s plans to shut it doors and close permanently. The abrupt decision came as a surprise as the day before it was revealed the company only generated $600,000 in revenue in 2021 after securing $124 million in investment funding the same year. Fast is a financial technology startup with an emphasis on one-click checkout.

The news came from CEO Domm Holland through a statement on twitter.

“After making great strides on our mission of making buying and selling frictionless for everyone, we have made the difficult decision to close our doors. 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’s one-click checkout experience.”

Last year Fast adopted the city of Tampa as its east coast headquarters and was scene as a success story of the Tamba Bay tech scene. Domm Holland moved his family to the city and joined the board and executive committee of the Tampa Bay Economic Development Council. The local event area Amalie Arena took Fast on as an online payment option for professional sports games and other events.

An email that was first received by Business Insider stated that CEO Domm Holland claimed the company’s shut down was a result of a lack of financial resources to continue business operations. He also mentions how the current environment had been “extremely challenging for high-growth tech companies”.

Luckily for Fast employees a vast majority of them will be given an opportunity to join the Affirm team. Affirm, another tech company in the checkout solution space was a direct competitor with Fast. The transition was further addressed in the email by Holland.

“With Fast winding down, our agreement will enable the vast majority of our engineers to transition to roles at Affirm. I’m grateful to Affirm for their work to place many of our engineers in great roles quickly”. Holland did not specify exactly how many engineers would be given this opportunity or the parameters to be able to swap companies.

Affirm acu-hiring apart of Fast’s team speaks to the work they did during the short-lived existence. Affirm will be able to strengthen and improve their services with the assistance of new engineers. In a statement to TechCrunch, Affirm had the following to say on strategic talent acquisitions.

“With Fast winding down its operations and discontinuing its brand and products, we saw another opportunity to invite a great technology team to join us,” the statement read. “While we do not have plans to get into the one-click checkout business, we look forward to welcoming many of Fast’s talented engineers to Affirm as we continue to advance our existing product roadmap in support of our mission to build honest financial products that improve lives.”

Although Fast launched with a clear goal and mission to pursue their leadership brought them way off course. Luckily employees will have an opportunity to work elsewhere and continue to advance their careers. For now, Fast is no longer and the payment solution industry just became a little more competitive.