Categories: Tech & Society

ATD: PayPal Co-Founder Levchin Launches New Payments Startup, Affirm

High-profile Silicon Valley entrepreneur Max Levchin is launching a new mobile payments startup today called Affirm.

It’s the first project emerging from Levchin’s San Francisco tech incubator Hard, Valuable, Fun (HVF), which he started after selling his last company — Slide — to Google and then eventually leaving the search giant. Previous to that, Levchin and investor Peter Thiel had sold PayPal to eBay.

Affirm will use Facebook for authentication of consumers, and also use a number of other social and data signals to assess risk. It will then guarantee payment to merchants — who will pay Affirm a fee — after this check.

Levchin described Affirm as a digital charge card rather than a credit card, trying to be valuable to merchants by lowering the abandonment rate of mobile transactions. Affirm’s beta launch partner is 1-800-Flowers.

“You will essentially be putting a purchase on a digital tab, and we are going to make it work for us by looking at all available data to determine if you are someone who will pay it back,” said Levchin.

Read full story at All Things D

Prateek Panda

Prateek is the Founder of TheTechPanda. He's passionate about technology startups and entrepreneurship and enjoys speaking to new founders every day. Prateek has also been consistently regarded as one of the top marketing experts in the region.

Recent Posts

Disrupting Fintech: How product studios are transforming financial services

In the rapidly evolving financial technology landscape, innovative product studios are emerging as powerful catalysts…

2 days ago

Harnessing the power of AI: Preparing today’s workforce for tomorrow’s challenges

In an era defined by rapid technological advancement, Artificial Intelligence (AI) stands as a transformative…

2 days ago

Indian esports makes history at BRICS Esports Championship in Moscow

In a historic moment for Indian esports, Wasfi “YoshiKiller” Bilal secured a silver medal at…

3 days ago

Geek Appeal: New gadgets & apps on the block

The Tech Panda takes a look at recently launched gadgets & apps in the market.…

3 days ago

Ecosystem harkat: India’s Biotech & space tech, early stage tech startups & women entrepreneurs in blockchain

The Tech Panda takes a look at what’s buzzing in the startup ecosystem. The startup…

3 days ago

Harris vs. Trump: Forecasting Bitcoin’s Future in a Post-Election Economy

With just days until the outcome of the U.S. presidential race, Bitcoin enthusiasts across the…

4 days ago