Affirm Taps eBay Executive To Go Beyond POS Payments

Max Levchin’s alternative online lender, Affirm, is bringing in the top guns to sturdy up its infrastructure as the company expands business beyond selling point-of-sale systems.

The company has hired eBay’s vice president of global delivery experience and local, Carl Gish, to serve as its chief marketing office for building up its global brand, helping it push out new financial service products and onboarding 600 new partner companies, up from just 100 a year ago.

“eBay notwithstanding, the kind of skills and know-how Carl built while developing the Dove Real Beauty campaign for Unilever, and as Dyson’s North American CMO, is exactly the deep consumer brand marketing expertise and talent Affirm needs in its next wave of growth,” said Affirm Chief Executive Officer Max Levchin.

Gish’s appointment comes after Affirm raised $100 million in equity funding in a Series D investment round that was led by Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund. Last month, the company also acquired personal finance management app maker Sweep.co.

“We’re not just trying to build another profitable lender. Affirm is here to revolutionize the banking industry to be more accountable and accessible to consumers, by developing products and services that empower consumers to better manage their financial well-being,” Levchin added.

The San Francisco-based startup’s voracity for top-notch management comes as demand for its platform increases.

“The banking industry is not consistently serving the best interests of its customers. Affirm is reinventing lending and consumer finance for the current century, starting by providing loans with terms that are fair and transparent right at checkout,” Gish said. “I’m excited to be joining Max and the rest of the team at Affirm as we work hard to realize our ambition of building a banking and financial services brand that customers explicitly trust and that they rely on to serve their best interests.“

Affirm, which was founded in 2013 by Levchin, helps financially underserved consumers score loans by using its credit scoring model, which it says better utilizes data analytics to extend loans to consumers at POS who are often left out by FICO-based credit scoring systems.