Affirm

Corporate brand

A U.S. financial technology company providing point-of-sale installment lending, buy now, pay later payments, and related consumer financial products.

Last updated October 6, 2026

AI crawler reads

No AI crawler has read this profile since Oct 28, 2026.

Overview

Affirm Holdings is a U.S. financial technology company and point-of-sale lender whose principal business is buy now, pay later (BNPL) and other installment-payment services. Founded in 2012 by Max Levchin and co-founders associated with the startup studio HVF, Affirm was built around the idea that consumers should be shown the cost and repayment schedule of a purchase before completing a transaction. Its products are integrated into merchant checkouts, digital wallets, banking applications, and Affirm-branded virtual or physical payment cards. Affirm generally provides unsecured installment loans. Depending on the consumer, merchant, product, and transaction, a customer may receive an interest-free option or a plan carrying interest. Affirm states that it does not charge late fees. Its revenue can come from merchant service fees, interest paid by borrowers, or both. Eligibility and loan terms are determined through underwriting that may consider credit information, transaction details, and machine-learning models. The company’s model therefore combines payments infrastructure, consumer-credit underwriting, merchant distribution, and loan funding rather than operating simply as a conventional card network. The company expanded its merchant coverage during the second half of the 2010s through integrations with e-commerce platforms including Shopify, Magento, Salesforce Commerce Cloud, BigCommerce, Kibo Commerce, AspDotNetStorefront, and Zen Cart. It also developed a consumer application and virtual-card capability intended to make financing available outside a merchant’s native checkout. A 2019 agreement with Walmart significantly increased its visibility in both online and physical retail. Affirm became a public company on Nasdaq in January 2021 under the symbol AFRM. During 2021 and 2022 it added or expanded relationships with Amazon, Target, Apple, Stripe, and other commerce and payments companies, while also acquiring Returnly. The company subsequently broadened its product range through the Affirm Card, a savings account, a debit card, and merchant-facing payment and commerce tools. Its network has also extended into travel, healthcare-related elective procedures, and other high-value purchases. Affirm’s performance is affected by consumer spending, merchant adoption, repayment behavior, credit losses, warehouse and securitization markets, interest rates, and financial regulation. The company faced a workforce reduction and the closure of its crypto unit in 2023. It continued international expansion by launching in the United Kingdom in 2024 and extending its Shopify relationship into additional markets in 2025. Walmart replaced Affirm with Klarna as its exclusive BNPL provider in 2025, although Affirm retained other distribution channels and continued adding partnerships, including Costco, FIS, and JPMorgan Chase’s payments business. Affirm is positioned around transparent repayment terms, embedded checkout financing, and a digitally managed lending experience. Its growth has also brought regulatory scrutiny over consumer indebtedness, credit reporting, disputes, data use, and the application of credit-card-style protections to BNPL products. The company has reported tens of millions of active consumers and hundreds of thousands of merchant relationships, but its financial results remain sensitive to the cost and availability of funding and to the credit quality of its loan portfolio.

History

Affirm was founded in 2012 by Max Levchin as a consumer-finance business built around point-of-sale installment payments. Its service addresses a common retail problem: allowing a shopper to divide the cost of a purchase into scheduled payments rather than paying the entire amount at once. The company developed a model in which merchants can offer Affirm financing within the checkout process, while consumers receive a repayment schedule associated with the particular transaction. The brand's operating concept belongs to the buy now, pay later and point-of-sale lending sector. Rather than functioning primarily as a general-purpose revolving card, Affirm presents transaction-specific payment choices. These may include a four-payment option without interest or longer repayment plans whose terms, eligibility, and pricing depend on the purchase and customer. A central part of the product proposition is displaying the payment schedule and total cost before the customer completes the transaction. Affirm's merchant-partnership model makes its service both a consumer-finance product and a commerce-enablement tool. Retailers and commerce platforms can add installment options to checkout, potentially giving shoppers another way to budget for an eligible purchase. The company has operated in the United States and Canada. Its services remain subject to credit underwriting, consumer disclosures, merchant arrangements, and the laws governing lending and payment products in the markets where they are offered. The available reference material supports a concise account of Affirm's origins and product proposition but does not supply verified dates for individual product launches, market-entry events, executive changes, public-listing milestones, acquisitions, campaigns, or controversies. Those areas are therefore left unpopulated rather than inferred.

Products and positioning

Transparent, flexible point-of-sale installment financing with repayment terms and total cost shown before purchase completion.

Merchant-integrated buy now, pay later
Affirm checkout
Affirm checkout enables participating merchants to present installment-payment choices during the purchase process. A customer can review available repayment structures before completing an eligible transaction. The exact plans, approval decision, interest terms, and payment schedule depend on the purchase and customer-specific assessment.
Short-term installment payment
Pay in 4
Pay in 4 divides an eligible purchase into four scheduled payments and is described by Affirm as interest-free. It is designed for shorter repayment periods and is offered only where the transaction and customer qualify. Product availability and terms can vary by merchant, market, and applicable disclosures.
Consumer installment lending
Longer-term payment plans
Affirm also offers plans that give customers more time to repay a purchase through scheduled installments. These plans can provide lower periodic payments than a shorter arrangement, but their cost and terms vary. Affirm's stated approach is to show the total cost and payment obligations before the customer proceeds.

Recent events

2022-01-26
Affirm updates its app and adds a Chrome extension[2]Affirm 更新应用并推出 Chrome 扩展程序americanbanker.com
Reported: 2022-01-26
Affirm announced an updated app that brings its offerings together in one place, along with a Chrome extension that lets customers use Affirm at retailers even when the service is not integrated into checkout.
2021-10-13
Target partners with Affirm and Sezzle on buy-now-pay-later options[3]Target 与 Affirm 和 Sezzle 合作推出先买后付选项gobankingrates.com
Reported: 2021-10-13
Target announced partnerships with Affirm and Sezzle to provide shoppers with buy-now-pay-later payment options.
Unconfirmed
Amazon and Affirm installment-payment partnership[4]亚马逊与Affirm推出分期付款合作webpronews.com
Reported: 2021-08-28
Amazon and Affirm partnered to offer Affirm's buy-now-pay-later option to some U.S. Amazon customers, with a broader rollout planned for the following months.
2021-01-13
Affirm prices IPO at $49 per share, raising $1.2 billion[5]Affirm IPO定价每股49美元，募资12亿美元foxbusiness.com
Reported: 2021-01-13
Affirm Holdings said on January 13, 2021, that it sold 24.6 million Class A shares in its IPO at $49 per share, above its target range, raising $1.2 billion. The shares were due to begin trading on Nasdaq later that day.
2021-01-13
Affirm sells shares in its IPO at $49 each[6]Affirm 以每股 49 美元发行 IPO 股票businessinsider.com
Reported: 2021-01-13
Affirm said it sold 24.6 million shares in its initial public offering at $49 per share, raising $1.2 billion; the shares were due to begin trading on Nasdaq later that day.
Unconfirmed
Affirm prices IPO shares above marketed range[7]Affirm IPO定价高于推介区间straitstimes.com
Reported: 2021-01-13
Affirm priced its U.S. IPO at US$49 per share, above its marketed range, selling 24.6 million shares to raise US$1.2 billion.
2020-12-17
HomeAdvisor partners with Affirm to offer pay-over-time financing[8]HomeAdvisor与Affirm合作提供分期付款服务prnewswire.com
Reported: 2020-12-17
HomeAdvisor announced a partnership with Affirm to offer HomeAdvisor customers pay-over-time payment options for home projects, including projects booked through HomeAdvisor Pay.
2020-11-19
Affirm files for IPO[9]Affirm提交首次公开募股申请coinspeaker.com
Reported: 2020-11-19
Affirm Holdings Inc filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission as part of its move toward an initial public offering.
2020-07-22
Shopify and Affirm partner on installment payments[10]Shopify与Affirm合作推出分期付款服务spokesman.com
Reported: 2020-07-22
Shopify and Affirm formed a partnership to offer flexible payment plans to U.S. consumers through Shopify merchants. The planned option allows shoppers to split purchases into four payments and was expected to roll out before the end of 2020.
Unconfirmed
Affirm announces shopping and payment app[11]Affirm宣布推出购物及分期付款应用digitalmedianet.com
Affirm announced a new app that lets consumers shop at virtually any store and split payments, including through a one-time-use virtual card and at brick-and-mortar stores that accept Apple Pay or Google Pay.

Sources17 sources

Cite this profile: Cite the canonical profile. /brand-wiki/affirm · Editorial policy · How profiles are compiled