Canada's Shopify partners with lending startup Affirm

Lending startup Affirm said on Wednesday it will partner with Shopify Inc in the United States to let the Canadian e-commerce company’s shoppers pay in installments.

Shopify’s Shop Pay users will have an option to split their total purchase amount into four equal, bi-weekly, interest-free payments, Affirm said in a statement.

The San Francisco-based startup is led by founder Max Levchin, an entrepreneur and investor who co-founded PayPal Holdings Inc, where he helped pioneer online payments in the dot-com era.

Affirm offers financing for online purchases, such as a couch or a guitar, which is paid back in monthly installments.

The startup said it will start testing the Shop Pay installments with Shopify in the coming months and expects it to be available to eligible U.S. merchants starting later in the year.