3. Bridgit

Detailed summary

Bridgit took on the slow and manual world of bridging finance. Five years later, the non-bank lender is bringing in $84 million in revenue. The post 3. Bridgit appeared first on…

Revenue: $84 millionGrowth: 218%Founder: Aaron BassinHead office: Sydney, NSWYear founded: 2021Employees: 177Industry: Financial ServicesWebsite: bridgit.com.au

When Aaron Bassin launched Bridgit in 2021, he saw a problem with bridging finance. Homeowners who had plenty of equity tied up in their property could still face rigid lending criteria and lengthy approval processes when they wanted to buy their next home before selling the old one.

Bridgit set out to make that process faster. Rather than relying on the manual processes traditionally used in bridging finance, the non-bank lender built a digital application and assessment process designed to give homeowners and mortgage brokers greater certainty, sooner.

Today, Bridgit says it has more than 18,000 accredited brokers across Australia and a $1.1 billion loan book.

That focus on speed presented another problem as Bridgit grew: how could it assess a rapidly increasing number of loans without simply increasing its workforce at the same rate?

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Its answer was to invest in its own technology. Bridgit developed ATLAS, its AI operating system, and ADAM, a decision-making tool that analyses property data and lending scenarios. The company says the technology has cut assessment times by 85%, with conditional approvals possible in as little as two minutes.

Importantly, people haven’t been removed from the process altogether. Bridgit uses what it calls “human-in-the-loop” governance, with its team retaining oversight of lending decisions.

The company says it has remained profitable for more than two years and attracted more than $1 billion in institutional capital and $60 million in equity.

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