PayPal co-founder will serve as new CEO of financial start-up affirm

Absrtact: PayPal co-founder, serial entrepreneur Max Lafchen (Max Levchin) revealed to the Wall Street Journal that he had decided to be the new chief executive of the financial start-up affirm, which graduated last year from his technology business incubator. Aff

PayPal co-founder, serial entrepreneur Max Laff (Max Levchin) told the Wall Street Journal that he had decided to serve as the new chief executive of the financial start-up affirm, which graduated last year from his technology business incubator.

Affirm works with E-commerce companies to get their customers access to instant credit lines to buy items on these e-commerce sites. The start-up calculates risk by setting interest rates and lending structures for lenders based on information from social media accounts and the cost of purchases, rather than referring to the FICO credit ratings of these clients. Lafchen a flexible loan based on relationships and trust as an electronic label on items purchased. Consumers can buy a product "Now" and then pay interest on the loan when they repay the purchase money.

Affirm 45 million dollars last year, with investors including VCs Khosla and the Speed of light investment (Lightspeed Ventures). The company now has 32 employees, including Palantir, co-founder of the Big Data start-up, Nadan Guey (Nathan gettings). Lafchen hopes to increase the number of employees to 50 by the end of the year.

Lafchen's incubator, HVF, also hatched a maternity business start-up glow. He said he had learned from the initial tests that affirm had great potential for development and decided to take care of the company full-time. He hopes to get more funding by the end of the year, so that affirm can start offering different types of loans, including for small businesses.

He told the Wall Street Journal: "In my opinion, small business loans are a kind of Holy Grail (the legendary treasure that holds all the wishes of the owner)." ”