San Francisco-based fintech giant Affirm offered its shares to the public on Wednesday. The payments unicorn announced its initial public offering of 24.6 million shares of stock at a price of $49 per share, with the shares trading under the ticker symbol AFRM.
By mid-day, share prices were trading at over $100. The company closed out the day at $97.24 per share with a market value totaling $23.6 billion, according to Forbes. The gross proceeds from the offering are expected to be approximately $1.2 billion, according to the company.
“Today is the result of years of work by hundreds of dedicated Affirmers who believe in honest and transparent finance. And although there is more work to be done, today offers an opportunity to reflect and celebrate,” Max Levchin, founder and CEO of Affirm, said in a tweet.
A registration statement relating to the shares being sold in the offering was filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission and became effective on Monday.
The “buy now, pay later” platform has over six million users and more than 6,000 merchant partners, including Walmart, Peloton, Oscar de la Renta and Audi.
“When I founded Affirm over eight years ago, I was driven by the idea that there had to be a better way to pay. A way that enabled consumers to avoid debt and helped merchants grow their businesses,” Levchin said in a post to LinkedIn. “Today, I’m honored and humbled to lead the amazing team that made our initial public offering a reality.”
The announcement follows a prosperous year for the payments company, less than four months ago Affirm raised $500 million in a Series G round led by GIC.
Affirm is now hiring for dozens of open positions based out of its San Francisco headquarters. The company is primarily looking to expand its client success and HR team, but multiple roles are available across several different departments.
The fintech platform has raised $1.5 billion in financing to date, according to Crunchbase.
