PawnHero is the first online pawnshop in

Southeast Asia Southeast Asia, also spelled South East Asia and South-East Asia, and also known as Southeastern Asia, South-eastern Asia or SEA, is the geographical United Nations geoscheme for Asia#South-eastern Asia, south-eastern region of Asia, consistin ...

that aims to solve the problem of expensive credit for base-of-the-pyramid consumers in emerging markets. It was first launched in the Philippines in February 2015 to meet the quick loan needs of the country. Recent studies have shown that only two out of 10 Filipinos have bank accounts and less than five percent have credit cards. PawnHero accepts a wide range of pawnable items that include

jewelry Jewellery ( UK) or jewelry (U.S.) consists of decorative items worn for personal adornment, such as brooches, rings, necklaces, earrings, pendants, bracelets, and cufflinks. Jewellery may be attached to the body or the clothes. From a western ...

luxury goods In economics, a luxury good (or upmarket good) is a good for which demand increases more than what is proportional as income rises, so that expenditures on the good become a greater proportion of overall spending. Luxury goods are in contrast to n ...

electronics The field of electronics is a branch of physics and electrical engineering that deals with the emission, behaviour and effects of electrons using electronic devices. Electronics uses active devices to control electron flow by amplification ...

, home equipment, and other personal items as collateral for a secured loan.

About PawnHero

Philippine launch

PawnHero first launched in the

Philippines The Philippines (; fil, Pilipinas, links=no), officially the Republic of the Philippines ( fil, Republika ng Pilipinas, links=no), * bik, Republika kan Filipinas * ceb, Republika sa Pilipinas * cbk, República de Filipinas * hil, Republ ...

as PawnHero.ph, an online pawning and selling website managed by PawnHero Pawnshop Philippines Inc. It leveraged on the large smartphone user population in the Philippines by allowing the use of a smartphone to pawn items. PawnHero is a licensed pawnbroker registered with the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas.

Board of Directors

PawnHero was founded by David Margendorff, Nix Nolledo, and Manny Ayala.

Funding

PawnHero received strategic seed funding from Sulficio Tagud, CEO of

2GO 2GO or 2GO Sea Solutions, also known as 2GO Travel, is a passenger ferry company based in Manila, Philippines, the shipping and passenger ferry arm of 2GO Group, and the only remaining Manila-based major interisland passenger ferry company, w ...

, the biggest premier logistics company in the Philippines. In addition, PawnHero also received funding from

500 Startups 500 Global (previously 500 Startups) is an early-stage venture fund and seed accelerator founded in 2010 by Dave McClure and Christine Tsai. The fund admitted a first "class" of twelve startups to its incubator office in Mountain View, California ...

, IMJ Investment Partners, Kaikaku Fund (Softbank and Alibaba), and angel investors such as Paul V. Rivera.

Awards

In March 2015, PawnHero won Judge's Choice in the Top 100 Startups Philippine Qualifiers for Echelon Asia Summit 2015. Three months later, it won the Judge's Choice Award as the Most Promising Startup in Asia at Echelon Asia Summit 2015 in Singapore.

References

{{reflist Online retailers of the Philippines Philippine companies established in 2015 Financial services companies established in 2015 Retail companies established in 2015 Internet properties established in 2015 Pawn shops 2015 establishments in the Philippines