Powered 500 · 2026POWEREDS. 493 of 500
After co-founding PayPal and building its fraud-detection backbone, Levchin launched Affirm in 2012, taking it public in 2021 and making it the dominant U.S. buy-now-pay-later platform processing billions through Amazon, Walmart, and Shopify.
Max Levchin co-founded PayPal in 1998 with Peter Thiel and others, serving as CTO and building its fraud detection systems before its $1.5 billion sale to eBay.
He founded Affirm in 2012 to offer buy-now-pay-later financing built around transparent terms. Affirm went public in 2021 and now processes billions of dollars in transactions with partners including Amazon, Walmart, and Shopify.
Interview · In Pipeline
Sponsored placement
An invitation, extended to Powered readers.
Drive the Continental GT S.
Request a test driveBentley T&Cs apply
