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Web Pawn - Next Big Thing?

Lightbank -- an investment group led by Groupon founders Eric Leftkosky and Brad Keywell -- recently led a $2.3 million Series B round for Web pawnshop Pawngo. Launched in August 2009 as InternetPawn, the company had written about 1,000 loans worth $1.4 million, according to All Things D. "Lightbank founder-in-residence Kevin Leland came across the company, helped hook up the deal, and has now joined as VP of marketing," it writes.

"The Pawngo business model, as CEO Todd Hillis explains, is aimed at people who need between $1,500 and $15,000." Users are expected to send in information about items they wish to pawn, and then Pawngo's "valuation lab" is supposed to return an estimate within an hour. The items get shipped to Pawngo's vault, and loans are built to last three to six months, All Things D explains. "Pawngo nets a 'monthly option charge' to keep the item (it can't call it interest because it's not a bank) of three to 6% per month."

Read the whole story at All Things Digital »

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