Consumer credit unicorn Affirm raises $500 million

San Francisco-based Affirm announced a $500 million series G round of funding led by GIC, a returning investor, and Durable Capital Partners LP. Other returning investors include Lightspeed Venture Partners, Wellington Management Company, Baillie Gifford, Spark Capital, Founders Fund, and Fidelity Management & Research Company LLC.

The company has raised over $1.3 billion from investors to date and employs over 940 people.

“We’re excited about this vote of confidence from both new and existing investors as we advance our mission to build honest financial products that improve lives.” – Max Levchin, CEO and founder of Affirm, and the co-founder of PayPal.

The company is also introducing an interest-free biweekly payment product for transactions as low as $50. As with Affirm’s existing monthly payment options, consumers will never be charged late or hidden fees when using this new product.

“Alongside this new capital, our latest product is another step towards becoming as ubiquitous as credit cards – Affirm is now an even more attractive payment option for everyday wants and needs. We can also now better support merchants who offer smaller ticket items and bring their customers a more transparent, flexible way to pay.” – Levchin.

When choosing to pay biweekly with Affirm, consumers can check eligibility in seconds, without impacting their credit score or inputting their social security number. For merchants, adding Affirm is simple and can take as little as one hour.

The company works with 6,000 merchant partners.

In 2019, merchants using Affirm reported 85% higher AOVs (average order value) when compared to other payment methods, and 67% of Affirm purchases were from repeat users.