Affirm kicked off trading on the Nasdaq on Wednesday, amid what has turned out to be a good year for “buy now, pay later” companies. Shares of Affirm, the first major tech IPO of 2021, popped in early trading Wednesday, jumping 100 percent from the $49 per share open to just over $100 per share before closing out the day at $97.24 per share, valuing the company at $23.6b.
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Affirm IPO highlights rapid growth of ‘buy now, pay later’ industry
“Affirm and Bread created a newer version that has digital installment programs for e-commerce, but are doing them in real time,” he said. “The idea was to have bigger-ticket purchases broken up. It was also an option for people who didn’t want to put the purchase on a credit card that was charging a high interest rate or for younger borrowers who didn’t have a credit card.”
