Apparatus to provide liquid funds in the online auction and marketplace environment
AssigneeKabbage, Inc.
InventorsRobert James Frohwein, Kathryn Tison Petralia
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A method, apparatus, and computer readable storage to implement a lending system for use with electronic commerce web sites such as auction sites. A seller may receive a cash loan for items placed for sale but not yet purchased by a buyer. The seller can be required to pay back the loan after a predetermined amount of time or as soon as the item for sale is sold and payment is received from the buyer. The lender would charge interest or commission for the loan. In this manner, sellers can receive cash for items listed on auction sites before those items are actually sold, generating additional cash flow for the seller.
Claims26
A method, comprising:
- performing on at least one computer:
- receiving identifying information about a customer over a computer communications network and registering the customer by storing the identifying information about the customer in a database;
- retrieving a credit profile of the customer;
- storing the credit profile of the customer in the database;
- receiving, over a computer network from a merchant website, a marketplace rating of the customer on the merchant website, wherein the customer is a seller of items on the merchant website;
- storing the marketplace rating of the customer in the database;
- initiating a loan determination for the customer;
- calculating a composite risk score based on at least the credit profile of the customer and the marketplace rating of the customer;
- determining whether to issue a loan to the customer based on the calculated composite risk score;
- and
- providing a loan processing system via a web browser accessible by the customer which enables the customer to log into and utilize a graphical interface that displays loan data.
A system, comprising:
- a computer comprising a network connection and a processor, the computer configured to implement:
- a registration module configured to register a customer by storing identifying information about the customer in at least one database;
- an information gathering module configured to:
- retrieve a credit profile of the customer from a lending database, store the credit profile of the customer in the at least one database, receive, over a computer network from a merchant website, a marketplace rating of the customer on the merchant website, and store the marketplace rating of the customer in the at least one database, the customer being a seller of items on the merchant website;
- a loan decision module configured to:
- initiate a loan determination for the customer, calculate a composite risk score based on at least the credit profile of the customer and the marketplace rating of the customer, and determine whether to issue a loan to the customer based on the calculated composite risk score;
- and
- a loan processing system accessible via a web browser by the customer which enables the customer to log into and utilize a graphical interface that displays loan data.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.