Bolt reportedly threatens legal action against Silverbear Capital

The latest twist in Bolt’s aggressive fundraising efforts is seemingly a threat of legal action by the fintech firm’s CEO, Silverbear Capital, an investment bank whose involvement within the deal stays in dispute.

“We believe there was some internal miscommunication at Silverbear Capital, one of our lead investors, which caused unnecessary confusion,” CEO Justin Grooms wrote in a press release. email allegedly viewed by Forbes“The fact is, they signed a binding term sheet committing $200 million. Our exceptional legal team at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher stands ready to represent the company as we seek to vigorously enforce our rights.”

Bolt, which offers one-click e-commerce checkout tools, didn’t immediately reply to a request for comment. Silverbear partner Veronica Welch told Forbes that “it never had anything to do with any disagreements” and that the deal “was never discussed or approved within the company.”

Earlier this month, a leaked term sheet showed Bolt searching for to lift $200 million in equity and $250 million in “marketing credits” at a $14 billion valuation, in an unusual pay-to-play deal structure that might essentially force existing investors to speculate or lose their stake in the corporate.

While it was initially reported that Silverbear would lead the equity round, Brad Pamnani, a partner on the firm, recently told TechCrunch that the deal is actually being conducted through a special purpose vehicle (SPV) managed by a UAE-based private equity fund.

“At first, I answered some questions using my Silverbear email address, which caused some confusion, but Silverbear never really looked into the deal,” Pamnani said.

Meanwhile, The London Fund’s CEO confirmed in an interview with TechCrunch that the corporate is contributing “marketing credits” to the deal. However, The London Fund issued a press release on Friday saying it had not seen and couldn’t “confirm the validity of any part of the document leaked to the press.”

“We can confirm that discussions have taken place between The London Fund and Bolt management; however, at no point did we state that a transaction had been concluded,” the corporate said.