Overview
Fast tried to make a shopper's identity reusable across independent online stores. Its checkout button moved purchasing onto product pages and removed repeated form filling. The San Francisco company's public launch came in September 2020. [1]
Fast announced closure in April 2022, fourteen months after a $102 million funding round. The checkout service ended. Affirm later acquired personnel and technology assets. [2] [4] [10]
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Founding Story
Domm Holland started Fast in 2019. Fast's later releases name Holland and Allison Barr Allen as founders. NPR's reporting also identifies Joshua Abulafia as an original founder who left after a dispute. [3]
Allen brought payments experience from Uber, including Instant Pay. Holland supplied the consumer origin story: his wife's grandmother struggled to complete an online grocery purchase because of a forgotten password. The first problem was repeated identification; payment was one use of the resulting account. [17] [2]
Holland later explained the product placement to BigCommerce: “we want to bring all of that forward.” A wallet at the final payment step still left a shopper navigating product, cart, and address screens. Fast wanted the purchase to begin where the shopper decided to buy. [8]
Timeline
- 2019: Company founded; original founding participants later diverged. [3]
- September 2, 2020: Fast Checkout launched with selected merchants. [1]
- January 26, 2021: Addition and Stripe co-led a $102 million Series B. Fast reported $124 million raised in total. [2]
- October 2021: Amalie Arena introduced merchandise purchases through seat QR codes. [6]
- March 28, 2022: Fast announced checkout implementation at The Honest Company. [5]
- April 2022: Closure announced April 5; sellers received an April 15 service termination date. [4]
- April 19, 2022: Affirm completed an employee and asset-related transaction. It completed the developed-technology purchase in its following fiscal year. [10]
What They Built
The first purchase collected ordinary contact and payment details. Later purchases at participating stores reused that information. Merchants placed the Fast button on product pages, alongside their normal shopping flow. An order hub gathered receipts, delivery tracking, and reordering. [1]
This was a shared shopper network distributed through merchant integrations. A button on a store mattered only when buyers used it. Recognition across stores could make the next purchase easier, but depended on merchants installing the service and shoppers trusting it.
Fast also let merchants combine purchases made within a short window into one order. The Honest announcement described this batching and proposed QR codes on packaging for replenishment. An installed product-page checkout and a planned packaging rollout are separate claims. [5]
Market Position
Target Customers
Fast sold to merchants while designing for shoppers. Independent stores wanted fewer abandoned purchases without becoming an Amazon storefront. Buyers wanted to avoid another password and another address form.
Its arena rollout tested a different context: a spectator could scan a cupholder code and order merchandise from a seat. Contemporary reporting described more than 10,000 codes. Ticketing and food purchases were possibilities, not demonstrated uses in that announcement. [6]
Market Size
The relevant opportunity was the share of merchant orders Fast could win and serve profitably. Total online retail spending could not establish that share. Likewise, availability to millions of platform merchants meant potential installation reach, not millions of customers. [2]
A useful forecast would require active merchants, eligible checkout volume, buyer adoption, repeat use, and net revenue after payment costs. The reviewed public record does not establish those inputs.
Competition
Fast faced established wallets and another independent checkout network. BigCommerce's March 2022 Bolt announcement offered self-service installation, an existing shopper network, and compatibility with merchants' payment processors. Fast competed for placement and usage within the same store ecosystem. [7]
The underlying benefit survives. Stripe now includes Link in its payment integrations without an additional Link fee for standard pricing. Its hosted Checkout and Payment Links also support faster purchases and QR distribution. These current products narrow the case for starting another general checkout network. [12] [13]
Business Model
Fast charged merchants when customers used its checkout. In a reproduced September 2020 interview, Holland described a default US fee of 2.9% plus $0.30, including card processing. That is a dated founder account, not a recovered final price list. Processing costs consumed part of the fee; merchandise value was not Fast revenue. [9]
Fast's funding release said headcount had reached 90 and targeted more than 200 by year-end. Payments Dive later reported Holland's January 2022 count of nearly 400 employees. The organization expanded before public evidence established a revenue base that could support it. [2] [4]
Traction
Named installations show the product reached real merchants. Honest's digital executive described adding another purchase option, and the arena rollout supplied a concrete distribution experiment. Neither announcement gives completed order counts, repeat usage, or merchant profit. [5] [6]
NPR relayed The Information's estimate of about $600,000 in 2021 revenue. This is reported annual revenue, not annual recurring revenue or merchandise processed. NPR also described uneven availability across products at named merchants. The evidence supports a gap between promotion and realized use, while leaving the exact customer-level economics unknown. [3]
Outcome and evolution
The seller notice said Fast Checkout would permanently end on April 15, 2022. Contemporary reports initially described Affirm's employment offers. Later filings establish more: Affirm closed a transaction with Fast AF, Inc. on April 19 covering personnel and an option on assets. [4] [10]
Affirm disclosed $10 million cash plus forgiveness of a $15 million secured note. It recorded approximately $25.4 million including transaction costs and classified the deal as an asset acquisition because the acquired assets did not constitute a business. Its fiscal 2023 report confirms completion of the technology purchase. [10]
In a later public video, Holland described an $85 million package including employee incentives and said 350 people moved to Affirm. His broader account is not the same measure as Affirm's filed acquisition cost. It does not show that Fast Checkout continued, that shareholders recovered their investment, or that every employee received the proposed incentives. [11]
Holland described “huge investor demand” for network expansion, then attributed the end to a change in funding conditions. That explanation describes financing dependence; it does not resolve whether the network could earn enough to support its cost. The public record reviewed on October 23, 2026 establishes service closure and asset recovery, not final investor returns. [11]
Key Lessons
- Fast sold a clear benefit: remove repeated checkout work. Proving that benefit required completed purchases and repeat use across stores.
- Fast's installation reach and named partners were weaker evidence than transaction revenue and merchant-level results.
- Fast carried payment-processing costs inside its merchant fee. A large merchandise market did not translate directly into company revenue.
- Fast's shutdown and Affirm transaction both belong in the outcome. Product continuity, asset value, employee incentives, and investor recovery measure different things.
Sources
- Fast launch announcement
- Fast funding announcement
- NPR closure reporting via GPB
- Payments Dive closure and seller notice
- Honest rollout announcement
- Amalie Arena rollout
- BigCommerce Bolt partnership
- BigCommerce founder interview
- This Week in Startups E1103 transcript
- Affirm 2023 annual report, printed p109/PDF p112
- Holland later transaction account
- Current Stripe Link
- Current Stripe Checkout
- Current Checkly plans
- Original HN shutdown discussion
- 20VC original post-closure interview page
- Contemporary Fast product profile