Affirm Holdings, Inc.
Leadership History
1 leader · 2014 to present
Max Levchin is the CEO of Affirm, in the role since 2014.
| Name | Role | From | To | Years in role |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Max Levchin | Founder, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman | 2014 | Present | 12 |
Founded in 2012, Affirm offers installment-payment options online, in stores, and through Affirm Card. It went public on Nasdaq in January 2021 and has expanded through merchant and platform partnerships, product launches, and acquisitions including Sweep, PayBright, and Returnly. The company is headquartered in San Francisco, California.
Affirm earns merchant-network revenue when consumers use its payment options, interest income on interest-bearing loans, card-network revenue, gains when it sells loans to third parties, and servicing income. Some plans carry 0% APR, while interest-bearing loans disclose a fixed repayment schedule. Affirm says it does not charge late or hidden fees.
Founder, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman
2014 – Present
12 years (current)
Under Levchin, Affirm launched point-of-sale installment products, acquired PayBright and Returnly, completed its January 2021 IPO, introduced Affirm Card, and expanded into the United Kingdom.
Levchin founded Affirm in 2012 and leads its payment network, lending products, and no-late-fee strategy. He previously co-founded PayPal and served as its chief technology officer.
The biggest risks are credit losses, funding costs, regulation of BNPL, merchant concentration, competition from PayPal, Klarna, Block, banks, and card networks, and consumer-spending cyclicality.
Max Levchin is Affirm's founder, CEO, and chairman. He founded the company in 2012 and has served as CEO since 2014; he previously co-founded PayPal and served as its chief technology officer.
In 1998, Max Levchin co-founded Confinity alongside Peter Thiel, which became PayPal; Levchin served as PayPal's inaugural Chief Technology Officer (CTO) and created the Gausebeck-Levchin anti-fraud CAPTCHA test.
Before Affirm, Levchin co-founded PayPal and founded Slide and the HVF startup studio. Affirm's official biography also notes his service as Yelp's first chairman.
Levchin believes financial products should be transparent, mathematically honest, and engineered to eliminate hidden penalties, replacing 1970s revolving credit cards with modern software-driven installment loans.
Libor Michalek serves as President of Technology and Risk at Affirm, having worked alongside Levchin for over 20 years across PayPal, Slide, and Affirm to build high-quality engineering teams.
Michael Linford serves as Chief Operating Officer and Chief Financial Officer (COO/CFO) of Affirm, managing capital markets, funding facilities, financial planning, and operational execution.
Affirm's official biography identifies Levchin as a PayPal co-founder and former chief technology officer, founder of Slide and HVF, co-founder of Glow, and Yelp's first chairman.
Management is focused on expanding Affirm Card into everyday retail payments, scaling global partnerships with Apple Pay and Shopify, and achieving sustained GAAP operating profitability.
Max Levchin, who famously co-founded PayPal, is the CEO and driving visionary behind Affirm.
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