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Bolt’s wisest move was buying Bolt.com when it did

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Payments company acquired bolt.com early in its life.

Logo for bolt has a blue lightning bolt and the word bolt in black letters

According to statistics gathered by Statista, almost 80% of all online shopping orders in selected industries were abandoned in March 2021, a staggeringly high figure.

While some shopping cart abandonment can be attributed to wishful thinking, or just checking how expensive an order might be, there are failings in the traditional checkout process that lead to high abandonment rates. Forcing shoppers to create an account, for example, leads to a 23% cart abandonment rate.

Dozens of companies have been created with the sole goal of reducing the cart abandonment rate through a slicker checkout process.

One such company is Bolt, which boasts “one-click checkout” capabilities.

Founded in 2014 in San Francisco, Bolt offers checkout solutions to combat abandonment. Brands such as the jewelry chain Forever 21 have become part of the Bolt Network. A key component of Bolt’s USP allows consumers to shop at any brand in the network without adding shipping or payment information repeatedly.

Bolt claims that one-third of all US shoppers will be included in the Bolt Network by the end of next year.

The company’s expansion has been fueled by its vast funding efforts. On January 14th, 2022, Bolt announced that it successfully raised $355 million in Series E funding at an $11 billion valuation, bringing its total funding raised to $963.1 million.

Smartly, this eight-year-old company secured the Bolt.com domain name very early on in its life.

DomainIQ’s Whois history suggests that Bolt may have acquired Bolt.com around September 2014, during its first year of operation, as the domain moved to a privacy-protected GoDaddy account. Around the same time, Bolt.com began displaying a website for Bolt.

For Bolt, landing the impeccable Bolt.com was a wise move. As a company that wants to handle the vital checkout process for multi-billion dollar brands, Bolt needed to immediately convey trust, brand longevity, and legitimacy. Something difficult for a young, digital-only company to achieve without an asset like Bolt.com.

Now that Bolt has established itself as a multi-billion dollar company, Bolt.com takes on a different role as the keystone of a network serving hundreds of clients and millions of consumers.

Since Bolt is such a generic and versatile brand name, it’s no surprise to see a wide array of companies branding around the Bolt name. I was surprised, however, to see Bolt, an Uber competitor, which has raised $2 billion, including a recent €628M Series F round. This Bolt was founded in 2013 and raised over $1 million in seed funding before the end of 2014. Bolt.com eluded this brand, though, and despite operating in more than 300 cities across Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Americas, Bolt uses Bolt.eu, the ccTLD for the European Union.

Possibly the next best domain, considering that Bolt.com is unlikely to be available to acquire ever again.

Dental brand Byte acquired Byte.com

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The company forwards Byte.com it to its website at ByteMe.com.

Screenshot of byteme.com showing a women putting in an invisible aligner

Byte has acquired Byte.com, which it forwards to its website at ByteMe.com.

A Californian dental brand made the monumental decision to acquire one of the most desirable domain names on the Internet, Byte.com.

Founded in 2017, Byte is one of many providers of invisible aligners, offering home kits to straighten smiles. The demand for clear dental aligners is increasing as people move away from traditional braces to something more subtle.

The market for clear aligners, estimated to be worth $2.41 billion in 2020, is expected to grow as more adults and teenagers are drawn to invisible corrective aligners. Company funding has reflected this expected growth.

SmileDirectClub and Candid, two American invisible aligner providers, have raised a combined $525 million in funding, while Byte itself was acquired for $1.04 billion in an all-cash deal by Dentsply Sirona, the world’s largest manufacturer of professional dental products.

A month before the acquisition announcement in January 2021, Byte.com transferred registrars and registrants. Previously owned by United Business Media LLC, the domain moved to GoDaddy, where it was registered to an unknown individual or company in Utah. Jamie Zoch first spotted the initial movement.

Byte.com remained dormant throughout 2021, displaying a basic custom landing page.

By September 2021, Byte.com had moved to the GoDaddy Corporate Domains account of Dentsply Sirona, indicating that the company had taken possession of the domain.

It’s unclear whether Byte bought Byte.com before the billion-dollar deal and didn’t utilize it or whether Dentsply Sirona purchased Byte.com in mid-2021.

Now, Byte.com redirects users to ByteMe.com, the current homepage for Byte.

With customers prompted to log in to their Byte accounts regularly to upload progress photos, Byte’s website takes on added importance as the source of continued customer interaction.

Investing in its brand-match domain name, Byte.com is a savvy move. While Byte.com may not pass the radio test in the context of dentistry, it at least transitions the brand away from the potentially confusing (and somewhat derogatory) ByteMe.com.

Cal.com raises $7.4 million after rebrand

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Growth takes off after domain upgrade.

Image with green background that states "Domain Upgrades"

During a global pandemic that has seen travel restrictions and lockdowns affect vast swathes of the workforce, companies were forced to transition to online meetings. While spending most of the day in Zoom meetings is a common problem, scheduling them in the first place can take time, with a multi-email back and forth to work out a suitable meeting time.

Dedicated scheduling services such as Calendly have thrived from the desire to make arranging a meeting a much easier process. At the beginning of 2021, Calendly revealed a monthly active user count of 10 million and announced a $350 million funding round, valuing the company at $3 billion.

Competing with the powerhouse that is Calendly is an uphill battle. However, it’s a battle that one young company is waging. To stand out from the crowd, it has branded around the supreme domain, Cal.com.

Launched as Calendso in 2021, this San Francisco-based company describes itself as “the open-source Calendly alternative.” It gained early popularity, earning the title of “product of the month” for April 2021 at Product Hunt.

Just five months after its original product launch, Calendso rebranded to Cal.com, a highly sought-after domain name that the company didn’t think it would get. Notably, Cal.com is the company’s brand name and its domain name, fully leveraging the power of the domain.

At the time of Calendso’s rebrand to Cal.com, the company’s co-founder, Peer Richelsen, noted,

After several months of brand exercises, research and negotiations with domain owners, we were lucky to come to terms with the previous owners of Cal.com. […] It’s a blessing to be able to call this domain our new home on the web, even though the chances were slim.

While no information about the acquisition price of Cal.com has been shared, it’s safe to say that the rebrand has helped the company to grow quickly. Earlier this year, Andrew interviewed the founder of Calendar.com, who noted that the domain name has been critical to its success.

Since Cal.com is an open startup, meaning that it shares salaries and core metrics, we can see exactly what effect the rebrand had. According to its open startup page, Cal.com had 491 weekly users between September 13th and September 19th, 2021, the week that it announced the rebrand.

By the beginning of December 2021, Cal.com recorded 12,021 weekly active users. Its cumulative customer count has also just passed a significant milestone, breaking the 10,000 customer count at the end of 2021. In comparison, Cal.com had a customer count of just 221 before its rebrand in September 2021.

Building on this success, Cal.com announced that it raised $7.4 million in funding led by Joseph Jacks from OSS Capital. Rebranding to Cal.com has undoubtedly helped this company become a leading Calendly alternative.

Voi acquired Voi.com prior to $115 million funding round

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Scooter company upgrades its domain, which will allow it to expand beyond scooters.

Logo for Voi. has voi. in orange letters on a white background

Voi upgraded its domain, which will allow it to expand beyond scooter rental.

Micro-mobility may be a new term to you, but it describes a multi-billion dollar industry.

Companies such as Bird, Lime, and Tier have created electric scooter and bike networks in cities, offering a cheap and environmentally-friendly alternative to taxis or traditional public transport.

The micro-mobility market is expected to be worth between $200-$300 billion by 2030, spurred on by an increase in popularity during the COVID-19 pandemic, where commuters have opted for single-rider, open-air transport.

The aforementioned trio of Bird, Lime, and Tier, have raised a combined $2.87 billion in funding to date, with Tier currently valued at $2 billion.

Swedish startup Voi has joined the ranks of micro-mobility companies that have attracted vast amounts of money from venture capitalists.

Just before Christmas, Voi announced that it successfully closed a $115 million Series D funding round, bringing its total funding to $515.6 million.

Founded in 2018, Voi has used its wealth to expand services across multiple European countries.

Aside from its infrastructure spending, Voi also spent money on a domain name.

When it comes to domains, it’s fair to say that micro-mobility companies often disregard the necessity for a premium name.

For whatever reason, companies have shunned valuable .com domains. Bird operates on Bird.co, Lime uses Li.me, and Tier can be found at Tier.app.

Voi has broken the mold by acquiring Voi.com.

The company began life on VoiApp.io before switching to VoiScooters.com. In September 2021, Voi became the registrant of Voi.com, according to Whois history.

Prior to this, Voi.com was operated for a couple of years by another startup named Voi, a behavioral health technology company founded in 2013. It still exists today, but it operates on Voi.health instead.

For the micro-mobility company Voi, existing on VoiScooters.com is limiting for the company. In the same way that Grab upgraded from GrabTaxi.com to Grab.com, Voi.com offers Voi more versatility when rolling out new products.

While it concentrates on scooter hiring, Voi may pivot or expand its operation, which would lead VoiScooters.com to become a confusing or obsolete domain.

Another consideration is the language barrier. Voi operates in multiple countries across Europe, with multiple languages.

Voi’s website translates into nine different languages, so choosing a domain name for a multinational audience containing an inherently English word may cause issues. Dropping “scooters” from its domain name will simplify things immensely.

Payment Rails rebrands to Trolley with Trolley.com

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Company chooses a more generic name and gets the matching .com.

Logo for Trolley.com has white letters on a purple background and a blue underscore under the letter t

Crunchbase’s Joanna Glasner called 2020 “the year of the noun,” after proclaiming that startup names were becoming “less silly.”

Glasner reviewed data that suggests that newly formed startups are beginning to choose basic dictionary words. It’s not only newly formed startups that are opting for these dictionary words, though.

Rebranding companies are also looking for solid, dictionary word brand names. ZenSourcer became Gem.com, SteelHouse rebranded to Mountain.com, and UserLeap became Sprig.com. Now, there’s another company joining the dictionary word-brand ranks.

Canada-based Payment Rails was founded in 2015 with the self-proclaimed goal of building a global payouts ecosystem. Through the development of a comprehensive platform, Payment Rails attracted clients such as LogMeIn, GigSalad, and Flippa.

The company’s natural growth has attracted venture capitalists. In early December 2021, Payment Rails successfully raised $7 million CAD in Series A funding from Pace Capital, bringing the company’s total funding to $10.1 million CAD.

That funding announcement was teamed with the news that Payment Rails rebranded to Trolley. In a blog post, CEO Tim Nixon revealed the limitations of the company’s original Payment Rails brand name,

We’ve always known that “payment rails” has a specific infrastructure-focused meaning, and it has caused some confusion as to what we do. […] Trolley reflects the idea that our clients are looking for a payouts partner who can help them move their business forward.

Along with its new brand name came a new domain name, Trolley.com. According to Whois history, this single-word .com was acquired by the company in August 2021, months before the rebrand.

Before this, Trolley.com was owned by Cable Car Concepts, a tram manufacturer that had a very 90s website.

Even before rebranding, Payment Rails had branched out from simply offering payout and payment infrastructure. The company offered tools such as tax reporting, fraud prevention, and other software integrations.

In short, Payment Rails had outgrown its original brand name. Under Trolley, teamed with the premium Trolley.com domain, the company has more flexibility to introduce a wider set of financial services or even pivot to a new industry entirely.

Coupled with a coveted single-word .com, single-word brand names offer brands versatility and room to grow.

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