Borro
The world's first online pawnbroker when it launched in 2008, In
the last 18 months, Borro has gone from issuing £200,000 to £2m
loans a month. The London-based firm offers short-term loans of
between £100 and £1m against personal assets including fine art,
jewellery, luxury cars and antiques. Of course, pawnbroking at this
scale requires some serious kit. Borro's bespoke software monitors
default and recovery trends, processes deals online and over the
phone, as well as crunching the numbers at super-fast speeds: many
customers receive a call-back confirming their loan amount within
five minutes. The customer simply picks his/her postage option or
brings the goods to a valuation centre and the money is
transferred. Borro has some heavyweight investors on board
including Octopus Investments and Eden Ventures, bringing a £25m
chunk of cash into the business to fund marketing and the loan
book. It also boasts unheard of staff retention rates: only one of
40 staff has left since inception.
- Bespoke software gives Borro the edge over the competition
- Capable of issuing loans of up to £1m
- Serious backing from a raft of VCs
Learn more about Borro