# Max Levchin

> Max Levchin is a Ukrainian-American tech entrepreneur and co-founder of PayPal, where he served as CTO and helped build one of the world's first large-scale digital payment systems. He later founded Slide (acquired by Google for $182M), Glow (women's health app, 25M users), and most prominently Affirm - the publicly traded buy-now-pay-later leader with $3.22B in FY2025 revenue. Levchin is also a cryptography advocate (creator of the Levchin Prize), early Yelp investor and chairman, and co-founder of SciFi VC with his wife Nellie.

- **Role:** Chair and CEO at Affirm Holdings
- **Organizations:** Affirm Holdings, HVF Labs, SciFi VC, Glow Inc., The Coca-Cola Company (Board)
- **From:** Kyiv, Ukraine (then USSR)
- **Nationality:** Ukrainian-American
- **Education:** High School Diploma, Mather High School, BS Computer Science, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
- **Known for:** Co-founded PayPal (with Peter Thiel and others), leading to $1.3B eBay acquisition in 2002, Served as CTO of PayPal during its transformative early years, Co-created the Gausebeck-Levchin Test (2001) - one of the first commercial CAPTCHA systems, ancestor of Google reCAPTCHA

## Career timeline

- **1975** — Born in Kyiv, Ukrainian SSR, Soviet Union
- **1991** — Family emigrated from Soviet Union to Chicago, fleeing anti-Semitic persecution
- **1993** — Enrolled at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), Computer Science
- **1995** — Co-founded SponsorNet New Media with Luke Nosek and Scott Banister while at UIUC
- **1997** — Graduated UIUC with BS in Computer Science
- **1998** — Co-founded Confinity (later PayPal) with Peter Thiel and Luke Nosek in Palo Alto
- **1999** — Confinity launched PayPal as a payment product
- **2000** — Confinity merged with Elon Musk's X.com; co-created Gausebeck-Levchin CAPTCHA test
- **2001** — Named MIT Technology Review TR100 Innovator of the Year
- **2002** — PayPal IPO on Nasdaq; eBay acquired PayPal for $1.3 billion
- **2004** — Founded Slide.com social media platform; became first investor in and chairman of Yelp
- **2005** — Executive produced the film Thank You for Smoking (dir. Jason Reitman)
- **2010** — Google acquired Slide for $182 million
- **2010** — Joined Google as VP of Engineering
- **2011** — Left Google; founded HVF Labs company creation studio
- **2012** — Co-founded Affirm through HVF Labs
- **2013** — Co-founded Glow Inc. women's health app with Michael Huang
- **2014** — Became CEO of Affirm
- **2015** — Founded the Levchin Prize for Real-World Cryptography; first Silicon Valley exec on CFPB Advisory Board
- **2015** — Stepped down as Yelp chairman after serving since 2004
- **2017** — Founded SciFi VC with wife Nellie Levchin
- **2021** — Affirm IPO on Nasdaq (AFRM), raising ~$1.2B; Levchin stake valued at ~$2.5B
- **2023** — Affirm laid off 19% of staff as part of profitability drive; FICO partnership
- **2025** — Elected to the Board of Directors of The Coca-Cola Company (October 2025)
- **2026** — Affirm reports first annual profit ($52.2M net income), $3.22B revenue, $36.7B GMV; Affirm Bank charter application filed

## Achievements

- Co-founded PayPal (with Peter Thiel and others), leading to $1.3B eBay acquisition in 2002
- Served as CTO of PayPal during its transformative early years
- Co-created the Gausebeck-Levchin Test (2001) - one of the first commercial CAPTCHA systems, ancestor of Google reCAPTCHA
- Founded Slide.com, acquired by Google for $182 million in 2010
- First institutional investor and Chairman of Yelp (2004-2015)
- Co-founded Affirm (2012), now the largest US BNPL lender with $3.22B FY2025 revenue
- Led Affirm to its Nasdaq IPO in January 2021, raising ~$1.2 billion
- Named MIT Technology Review TR100 Innovator of the Year (2002)
- Founded the Levchin Prize for Real-World Cryptography (first awarded 2016)
- First Silicon Valley executive appointed to CFPB Advisory Board (2015)
- Co-founded Glow Inc., women's health app with 25M users
- Executive produced Thank You for Smoking (2005)
- Elected to Coca-Cola Company Board of Directors (October 2025)
- Named Forbes Self-Made 250 (April 2026)
- Co-founded SciFi VC with portfolio including Stripe, Brex, Uber, Anduril

## Latest updates

- **2026-04** — Named on Forbes Self-Made 250 list
- **2026-02** — Affirm reports first annual profit ($52.2M net income), $3.22B revenue, $36.7B GMV, 25.8M active users
- **2026-01** — Affirm files for Nevada industrial loan company charter to operate 'Affirm Bank'
- **2025-10** — Elected to Board of Directors of The Coca-Cola Company
- **2025-03** — Walmart replaced Affirm with Klarna as BNPL partner
- **2024-12** — Affirm integrates with Apple Pay and expands Costco partnership
- **2024-05** — Appeared on Bloomberg TV discussing BNPL concerns, US consumer trends, and inflation
- **2023-02** — Affirm restructures: 19% workforce reduction, exits crypto business, focuses on path to profitability
- **2023-01** — Affirm announces FICO partnership to incorporate BNPL payment history into credit scores

## Links

- Website: https://hvflabs.com/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/maxlevchin
- Twitter/X: https://x.com/mlevchin

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/max-levchin
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-04-27