Name: Affirm, PayPal co-founder's fintech startup, files for IPO
Brand: marketwatch.com
SKU: marketwatch-com-348
Availability: OnlineOnly

critic

Affirm, PayPal co-founder's fintech startup, files for IPO

preview

Affirm Holdings Inc. filed for an initial public offering Wednesday, giving a member of the “PayPal Mafia” yet another chance to score Wall Street riches. Affirm is a financial-technology startup that allows consumers to purchase goods and make payments in installments. It was co-founded by Max Levchin, a co-founder of PayPal Holdings Inc.who is chief executive of the company.Levchin is one of several early PayPal executives and employees who have moved on to find riches from other startups after selling the online-payments company to eBay Inc. in 2002. The group has come to be known as the PayPal Mafia, and includes Tesla Inc.Chief Executive Elon Musk, Palantir Technologies Inc.Chairman Peter Thiel, LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman and Yelp Inc.founder Jeremy Stoppelman. Levchin had already established one startup, Slide, after leaving PayPal, selling it to Alphabet Inc.’sGoogle in 2010 before working at the search giant for a short time. In 2012, he founded Affirm, which he sees as a new approach to the traditional credit-card industry. “One could argue cards have devolved, even become corrupted,” Levchin said in a letter included in . “The barely-readable fine print makes only one thing clear to consumers: You’ll never know exactly what your purchase will really cost you. With most of the payments industry deriving profits from late fees, overdraft charges, and gimmicks like deferred interest, it’s not hard to agree that there has to be a better way; it’s time to evolve payments again.” The San Francisco company disclosed that revenue nearly doubled in the past fiscal year and surpassed half a billion dollars, rising to $509.5 million in the fiscal year ended June 30, from $264.4 million in the previous year. Losses contracted slightly amid the revenue gains, with Affirm reporting a net loss of $112.6 million in the 2020 fiscal year after recording a $120.5 million loss the previous year. Affirm expects to list its Class A shares on the Nasdaq Global Select Market under the ticker AFRM, while giving Levchin special class B shares that hold a higher voting power, which will maintain his control over the company. The company stated a target for its IPO of $100 million, though that is typically a placeholder figure that will be updated with more information in later filings. The offering will be led by Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs and Allen &amp; Co., along with six other banks listed as underwriters.As many segments of the economy roar back from pandemic-driven slumps, consumers still aren't returning to stores like they used to.SearchVisit a quote page and your recently viewed tickers will be displayed here.Search TickersNo results found

Affirm Holdings Inc. filed for an initial public offering Wednesday, giving a member of the “PayPal Mafia” yet another chance to score Wall Street riches. Affirm is a financial-technology startup that allows consumers to purchase goods and make payments in installments. It was co-founded by Max Levchin, a co-founder of PayPal Holdings Inc.who is chief executive of the company.Levchin is one of several early PayPal executives and employees who have moved on to find riches from other startups after selling the online-payments company to eBay Inc. in 2002. The group has come to be known as the...

public

Jeremy C. Owens

MarketWatch is a website that provides financial information, business news, analysis, and stock market data. Along with The Wall Street Journal and Barron's, it is a subsidiary of Dow Jones & Company, a property of News Corp. Notable contributors include Mark Hulbert and Francine McKenna.

marketwatch.com

Credible

Speculation

Anecdotal Evidence

Generalization

Stacking the Deck

Appeal to Authority

Straw Man

Slippery Slope

Emotional Appeal

Red Herring

False Dilemma

Illogical

Moral Equivalency

Ad Hominem

Correlation w/o Causation

Semantics

Begging the Question

Faulty Analogy

Non Sequitur

Bandwagon

Dogmatism

Failing Occam's Razor

Biased

Pure Opinion

Hit Piece

Racial Bias

National Bias

Religious Bias

Financial Incentive

Political Agenda

Gender Bias

Misused Image/Video

Study Misinterpreted

Mistake

Misused Term

Science Misrepresented

Factual Error

Satire

Surface Level

Lack of Reliable Sources

Sensational

Not Credible

Investigative

Balanced

Well Sourced

Great Context

sports

entertainment

U.S.

international

business

technology

science

culture

politics

media

health

Affirm, PayPal co-founder's fintech startup, files for IPO

No article scores yet.

CRITIC REVIEWS

PUBLIC REVIEWS