Rentalic and Appbackr Big Winners in PayPal X Developer Challenge
Paypal announced the winners of its PayPal X Developer Challenge this past Monday, with Rentalic and Appbackr taking first and second place, respectively.
Rentalic, which received $50,000 in cash and $50,000 in waived PayPal fees, is a website that allows people to rent anything they own to friends, neighbors, family, etc. The owner opens an account, lists the services or items they'd like to make available, and those become part of a searchable database so that borrowers can find and rent them.
Rentalic uses PayPal's preapproval API to make sure the borrower has sufficient funds for a rental fee as well as take and hold a deposit until the item is returned. Once returned, the owner can refund all or part of the deposit to the borrower.
Appbackr, which received $25,000 in cash and $25,000 in waived PayPal fees, is a wholesale marketplace for iPhone applications. Appbackr connects developers in need of funding with users that would like to back new apps by purchasing them at wholesale prices. The developer receives the funds, then the user that funded it, the "appbackr," sells those apps at retail pricing on the iTunes store, making their profits on the markup
Over 650 submissions were received, with finalists selected by popular vote on the PayPal X web site, x.com. The winners were chosen by a panel of judges.
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