Bolt launches ‘zero fraud’ end-to-end online payments platform

Though it’s generally seen as a good thing, fraud protection can have some drawbacks. It can reject good customers from a payment system, lowering potential revenue for merchants.

Ryan Breslow, CEO and co-founder of Bolt, says that current systems are too fragmented. Coming out of stealth mode today after a year and a half, Bolt integrates checkout, payment and fraud detection for what it calls the first truly all-in-one payments platform.

Breslow told me that most payments platforms reject good customers with “false positives” in terms of risk. By accepting more customers, Bolt says its clients have seen a significant lift in revenue — up to 50 percent.

“The biggest problem in online payments is not fraud itself,” Breslow told me. “If you are a merchant and you sign up for a fraud solution, the problem is that they will reject a percentage of good customers. They want to show that they don’t let any fraud through, so they’re super-conservative.”

Breslow says that Bolt provides more visibility, allowing it to “take merchants off the hook” with a “zero-fraud guarantee.”

“Bolt’s intelligent anti-fraud technology allows more qualified transactions to occur and has access to more data across checkout and payment. Better data provides a higher level of confidence — so much so that Bolt covers all chargebacks from credit card companies,” the company said in a release.

Breslow told me that the platform provides a seamless experience between payments, checkout and fraud detection. He said its checkout is poised to take on Amazon.

“Amazon does so much work to convert as many customers as possible and create the best margins and the rest of the world can’t compete,” Breslow said. “We streamline the checkout experience. We make it whip-fast and delightful.”

About The Author

Robin Kurzer

Robin Kurzer started her career as a daily newspaper reporter in Milford, Connecticut. She then made her mark on the advertising and marketing world in Chicago at agencies such as Tribal DDB and Razorfish, creating award-winning work for many major brands. For the past seven years, she’s worked as a freelance writer and communications professional across a variety of business sectors.