Affirm IPO sees shares surge 98%

Affirm, a San-Francisco buy now, pay later (BNPL) fintech, has almost doubled its value following a successful initial public offering (IPO) on 13 January.

The fintech, led by PayPal co-founder, Max Levchin, priced its shares at $49 a piece, above its target range of $41 to $44 each.

Affirm managed to more than halve losses by June 2020

Shares then surged to $97.24 at the market close. That’s a 98% gain jump from the IPO price.

Affirm closed its IPO with a market value of more than $23 billion. The company has a fully diluted valuation of almost $30 billion, including options and restricted stock units, according to Bloomberg calculations.’

The fintech filed for its IPO back in October, but kept all the financials private.

For Levchin, it marks almost two decades since PayPal went public. He owned a stake in Affirm worth almost $1.4 billion at its IPO … Read the rest

Video: Top fintech stories this week – 15 January 2021

The FinTech Futures weekly round-up of the industry’s top stories and developments from across the globe.

This week we cover:

 

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Mercado becoming markets editor at CNBC

CNBC personal finance writer Darla Mercado is becoming a markets editor for the business news website. She starts her new position next week. As a personal finance writer, she has been writing about taxes, retirement planning,...

The post Mercado becoming markets editor at CNBC appeared first on Talking Biz News.

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Grab’s fintech arm lands $300m Series A

Grab, the Singapore-based ride sharing turned “super app”, has landed a $300 million Series A funding round for its fintech arm.

Led by Hanwha Asset Management – one of South Korea’s Big Three – the round also saw participation from early Grab backers K3 Ventures and GGV Capital. Flourish Ventures, the venture capital firm funded by eBay’s founder Pierre Omidyar, and Arbor Ventures, also participated in the round.

It says it will use the funding to keep serving Singapore’s unbanked population. Southeast Asia as a whole houses an unbanked population of around 290 million, according to US credit agency Fitch Ratings.

Grab launched its first micro-investment service last August

The fintech arm, called Grab Financial Group, saw its total revenues jump up by more than 40% in 2020, compared to 2019.

Just last month, Grab and its partner – major Asian telco Singtel – became just one set of two … Read the rest