SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Affirm, the financial technology company led by PayPal Co-founder Max Levchin, today announced it is now offering financing to students attending coding, design, and business education programs offered by General Assembly, Bloc, and Kaplan’s Dev Bootcamp and Metis.
The move marks Affirm’s expansion beyond consumer financing with retail merchants at the point-of-sale online. Affirm’s first product, Buy with Affirm, lets shoppers pay for purchases in monthly installments with transparent, simple interest loans. Popular among consumers looking for budget flexibility, Affirm installment loans are now available at hundreds of e-commerce sites. Online merchants offering Buy with Affirm have seen increases in average order values (AOVs) by up to 80 percent and conversion rates by more than 20 percent, all by providing consumers with access to fairly priced, real-time financing.
“Gone are the days of waiting in line and filling out endless paperwork at a financial aid office,” said Levchin. “Students attending our partner institutions will be able to fund their futures in seconds using Affirm and they will have more flexibility than ever, so they can focus on their education.”
For students attending General Assembly, Dev Bootcamp and Metis (which all offer in-person boot camps), and Bloc (the world’s largest online programming boot camp), Affirm is offering loan terms of 12, 15 or 18 months with interest rates from 6% to 20% APR. For most of the education partners, no payments on Affirm loans are due during the first six months of study to provide students with budgetary relief while they’re taking courses and looking for jobs.
“General Assembly is committed to helping all students pursue the work they love, and this partnership with Affirm will open doors for many people looking to learn the most cutting edge skills and pursue a meaningful career in technology, business, and design,” said Jake Schwartz, Co-founder and CEO, General Assembly.
Dev Bootcamp President, Jon Stowe added: “For people with little to no technical experience, Dev Bootcamp quickly creates a path to new career opportunities by teaching practical, job-ready skills. We’re pleased to be partnering with an innovative company like Affirm to widen access to technical education and the career opportunities that follow.”
Boot camps are intensive, accelerated learning programs that teach students skills in web development, data science, digital marketing, user experience, interface design, and a number of business-related topics. The programs vary in length from six to 28 weeks, although most are ten weeks long, and they match students with employers.
The average full-time programming course in the U.S. costs $9,900 with some course providers charging up to $20,000 in tuition, according to Course Report, a website offering reviews and information to help prospective students choose a coding boot camp.
Boot camps will generate over 16,000 graduates this year, up from 6,740 in 2014, according to Course Report’s second annual Market Sizing Report.
About Affirm
Affirm is a financial services technology company that is reimagining consumer finance by providing consumers new and innovative ways of financing their purchases at the point-of-sale. All underwriting and pricing are adaptive based on data that prices marginal risk in real-time, and the loan terms are completely transparent to consumers. To start working with Affirm go to affirm.com.
