Max Levchin
Ukrainian-born PayPal co-founder and CEO of Affirm
- Age
- 51 yrs
- Birthday in 247 days
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Max Levchin is a Ukrainian-born American software engineer who co-founded PayPal and, as its CTO, built the fraud-detection system that kept it alive. He later founded Slide and is CEO of Affirm, a buy-now-pay-later company.
Biography
Background
Levchin’s Jewish family emigrated from Kyiv to Chicago as refugees in 1991. He studied computer science at the University of Illinois.
PayPal
In 1998 he co-founded Confinity with Peter Thiel, which became PayPal. As CTO he led the development of anti-fraud technology, including an early CAPTCHA, the “Gausebeck–Levchin test”.
Slide and Yelp
He founded Slide, a social apps company sold to Google in 2010, and was an early investor and chairman of Yelp.
Affirm
In 2012 he co-founded Affirm, which lets shoppers pay in instalments. It went public in 2021.
Timeline
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1975
Born in Kyiv, Soviet Union (now Ukraine)
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1991
Emigrates to the US
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1998
Co-founds Confinity
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2002
eBay buys PayPal
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2004
Founds Slide
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2010
Google buys Slide
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2012
Co-founds Affirm
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2021
Affirm IPO
Did you know?
-
1
He was named MIT Technology Review’s Innovator of the Year in 2002.
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2
The Levchin Prize for Real-World Cryptography is named after him.
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3
He is a keen cyclist.
Connections
Related people
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Peter Thiel
Technology · PayPal co-founder, Palantir co-founder and first outside investor in Facebook
PayPal co-founder
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Elon Musk
Technology · CEO of Tesla and SpaceX and the world’s richest person
PayPal co-founder
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Reid Hoffman
Technology · Co-founder of LinkedIn and influential Silicon Valley investor
PayPal colleague
Frequently asked
Who is Max Levchin?
Max Levchin is a Ukrainian-born American software engineer who co-founded PayPal and, as its CTO, built the fraud-detection system that kept it alive. He later founded Slide and is CEO of Affirm, a buy-now-pay-later company.
How old is Max Levchin?
Max Levchin is 51 years old, born on 11 July 1975 in Kyiv, Soviet Union (now Ukraine).
Where is Max Levchin from?
Max Levchin was born in Kyiv, Soviet Union (now Ukraine).
What is Max Levchin known for?
Max Levchin is best known for Co-founding PayPal and its fraud system; founding Slide and Affirm.
References
- Max Levchin — Wikipedia. Wikipedia. Retrieved 4 November 2026.
- Official website. www.levchin.com. Retrieved 4 November 2026.
- Max Levchin (Q93014) — structured data. Wikidata. Retrieved 4 November 2026.
Includes material from the Wikipedia article “Max Levchin”, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. That text is available under the same licence. Learn more
External links
About this profile
- Researched by the TrackFame editorial team; reviewed by Sanjay Sokal under our editorial policy
- First published 4 November 2026
- Last updated
Cite this page
“Max Levchin.” TrackFame, last updated 5 November 2026. https://trackfame.com/person/max-levchin
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