OpenAI and Microsoft Are Partners, Until They Vie for the Same Customers Read More

Fast HQ in San Francisco. Photo by Fast.

Stripe-Backed Fast Puts Job Cuts on the Table as It Tries to Raise Money

Photo: Fast HQ in San Francisco. Photo by Fast.

Domm Holland, CEO of one-click checkout startup Fast, is telling potential new investors that the company plans to cut hundreds of jobs, a person with direct knowledge of the matter told The Information.

The cuts would mark a dramatic setback for the three-year-old Fast, which has raised a total of $124 million from payments giant Stripe and other backers. The company is now trying to raise another $100 million at a pre-investment valuation of $450 million, which would be a drop from its last valuation of $500 million, the person said.

Any cuts at Fast would be the latest in a wave of layoffs among startups as funding prospects dry up and firms brace for a downturn. Instant-delivery company Gopuff also plans to cut hundreds of jobs, or about 3% of its workforce, The Information reported on Tuesday evening.

Get access to exclusive coverage
Read deeply reported stories from the largest newsroom in tech.
Latest Articles
 
Exclusive facebook
Meta Rehires Partnerships Executive After Vowing to Shrink Management
Nick Grudin. Photo by Dapper Labs.
Meta Platforms CEO Mark Zuckerberg’ effort to cut back on middle managers isn’t stopping the company hiring more middle managers. Meta has re-hired a veteran manager, Nick Grudin, to oversee its relationships with media companies and other creators, just seven months after Grudin quit to join Dapper Labs, an NFT startup. Grudin will resume his old job, reporting to his previous boss...
Latest Briefs
 
Virgin Orbit Reportedly Nears $200 Million Funding Deal
Amazon Tests Palm-Scanning Technology at Panera Bread
Toyota Phases Out Amazon Alexa in Vehicles, Explores ChatGPT
Stay in the know
Receive a summary of the day's top tech news—distilled into one email.
Access on the go
View stories on our mobile app and tune into our weekly podcast.
Join live video Q&A’s
Deep-dive into topics like startups and autonomous vehicles with our top reporters and other executives.
Enjoy a clutter-free experience
Read without any banner ads.
Sarah Nagy gives a demo of her startup, Seek.ai, at an AI event at the San Francisco Wine Society in January. Photography by Laura Morton
First Look startups ai
Boom Times in San Francisco’s AI Underground
Not even a banking crisis could chill the fever sweeping San Francisco. Last Wednesday, as the tech industry recoiled from the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank, a party was scheduled at the offices of Maverick Ventures in an old army hospital in the Presidio.
Cover art and portraits by Clark Miller
The Big Read
The Instant Oral History of the Silicon Valley Bank Collapse
On a cosmic level, the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank was a mere blip. The murmurs about trouble began last Wednesday, the panic spread via group texts and Twitter threads on Thursday, the bank went under on Friday, the government got its act together on Saturday, and on Sunday every current and former customer of SVB could breathe a cautious sigh of relief.
A pedestrian passes a Silicon Valley Bank branch in San Francisco, on Monday, March 13, 2023. Photo by AP.
Exclusive startups venture capital
SVB’s $9.5 Billion Venture Unit Included Large Investments in Andreessen, Sequoia, Documents Show
As potential buyers circle the remnants of Silicon Valley Bank and its affiliates, one asset could be particularly appealing: the company’s venture capital arm.
Art by Clark Miller.
Opinion startups economy
SVB Is Dead. Long Live SVB.
We all know how it began. It started on March 9, when the run on Silicon Valley Bank made the innovation economy totter and threatened a global financial crisis.
Clockwise from top left: Julie Bornstein, Esther Crawford, Mark Hammond, Max Cutler, Kağan Sümer. Photos via Julie Bernstein, Robert Cowherd, Microsoft, Wikimedia and Kağan Sümer.
Free Agents startups
On the Market: The Founders Who Joined Microsoft, Spotify, Coinbase and Twitter
Call them acqui-fires. Several founders who took positions at the bigger tech companies that bought their startups recently lost their jobs when layoffs rolled through Silicon Valley.
A recent New York Knicks/Los Angeles Lakers game. Photo by Adam Pantozzi/NBAE via Getty Images.
Exclusive google amazon
NBA Wants Billions More in Sports Deals: Media and Tech Firms Are Resistant
The NBA is one of the most popular sports leagues in the world. It also has high hopes for squeezing far more money out of media outlets in negotiations for future TV broadcast rights, in part because tech giants including Amazon and Google have told the league of their interest in streaming the games.