Affirm (AFRM), the consumer lender led by PayPal (PYPL) co-founder Max Levchin, has nearly doubled in value since its IPO debut, giving the company a market capitalization of USD 23.6b. Shares skyrocketed to USD 97.24 at the market close, resulting in a capitalization of about USD 23.6b for the company. It seems that the buy-now, pay-later solution is a winning game.
Most of the company's revenues are generated by fees charged to merchants, in addition to offering interest-bearing loans with no late fees to customers.
As a by-product of the pandemic, Affirm gained massive traction in 2020 as consumer lending underwent a tectonic shift from large up-front to small long-term monthly payments. Affirm faces intense competition from other companies like Afterpay (APT), Klarna, as well as PayPal, which recently introduced its own "buy now, pay later" offering.