Pawnhero

PawnHero is the first online pawnshop in Southeast Asia. It was established to help solve the problem of expensive credit for lower class consumers in emerging markets. It was launched in the Philippines in February 2015 to meet the quick loan needs of the country. Recent studies have revealed that only two out of ten Filipinos have bank accounts and less than five percent have credit cards. PawnHero accepts pawnable items as collateral for a secured loan.

Philippine launch
PawnHero first launched in the Philippines 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.

Funding
PawnHero received strategic seed funding from Sulficio Tagud, CEO of 2GO, the biggest premier logistics company in the Philippines. In addition, PawnHero also received funding from 500 Startups, 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.