From Talks to Traction: Bridgin's Early 2025 Field Learnings

Whether behind the desk or out in the field, it has been a busy beginning of the year for Bridgin. Our team has taken part in three conferences that have fueled our vision and opened doors to new partnerships: Africa Tech Summit and Sankalp Forum in Nairobi; and the Access to Energy Investment Forum in Kampala.

Events like these go beyond networking gatherings - they are also deep listening sessions. Here are four key insights we are carrying with us as we continue building and bringing Bridgin to market.

Learning 1: Demand, Belief, and Interrogations

Across the board, we see increasingly positive answers to models which, like Bridgin, aim at democratizing a new asset class to facilitate access to finance.

From investors, we continue to hear familiar pain points:

• Reaching SMEs on the continent remains challenging, because ticket sizes do not match 

• Aggregating receivables is seen as a smart solution as it would allow not only to reach more companies, but also to diversify risk exposure

• Data standardization and quality are ongoing struggles, and any solution this can support that process is welcome.

  
  

We see originators, too, excited to see new paths to capital that offer an alternative to raising dilutive funding or overleveraging their balance sheet. 

There is, naturally, a healthy degree of skepticism in the room. But it’s not about whether Bridgin's model works—the value proposition of connecting verified receivables with capital is broadly understood and welcomed. The caution we hear is about execution: Can it scale? Can it prove consistent data quality? Can the structure hold up in practice? Those are fair questions, and exactly the ones we’re working on to answer as we continue building and piloting with partners on the ground.

Learning 2: Data Integrity Is Not a Feature. It’s the Foundation

Off-balance sheet investors aren’t just pricing loans or receivables: they’re pricing confidence in the data those receivables rely on.

This core concern to on-balance sheet operations is even more relevant to off-balance sheet ones. When assets are priced, purchased, and monitored externally as the core process of a deal, data becomes the single source of truth.

So, it’s no surprise that many of the same questions kept coming up over the last couple of weeks - to which we have some elements of answer: 

• How do you ensure the data you’re seeing reflects reality at all times?

  
  

  • The more manual the process, the higher the margin for error. Clean integrations between investment platforms and originators’ loan management software are key.

• How can you trust that a CRM or loan management software isn’t compromised?

  
  

  • Due diligence on the software stack is a great way to assess the reliability and integrity of the IT architecture. Reconciling software payment data with telcos’ payment track records provides an additional layer of confidence in the reliability of that ecosystem.

• What if the IT system fails, or if the company goes insolvent and stops managing its receivables anymore?

  
  

  • That’s where  Back-Up Servicing comes in!

Learning 3: There Is More To a Solid IT Stack than Just Data: it’s About Product Confidence

In one particularly insightful discussion, we were reminded that robust loan management software isn’t only about data accuracy and shed some light on the importance of robust loan management software from a different angle.

When going off-balance sheet, investors don’t buy assets in a vacuum. They buy confidence in a product or service, and the ecosystem that delivers it.

Weak loan management and IT Systems, from that perspective, do not solely pose a data risk: they erode confidence in the company’s ability to service customers and deliver on its promises. In worst case scenarios, a poor IT stack can directly harm customer experience (delayed product activation, untracked payments, missed answer to maintenance requests…)

This does not only indicate weak data quality, but also systemic fragility, which can affect customers’ payment behavior and, ultimately, deteriorate a product's market value. And what’s behind the product? The asset an investor bought. 

For that reason, we encourage any originator who would contemplate selling assets through Bridgin to adopt a robust loan management software, either commercial (e.g. PaygOps) or in-house, which will both guarantee product quality and access to reliable performance data through robust integrations with our platform.

Learning 4: Curious Eyes Are Looking at Paygo

Circling back to access to energy, we’ve seen some encouraging signals surrounding the interest from sector-agnostic investors for Paygo solutions.

There is a sense that, if properly structured and serviced, Paygo receivables could behave as an asset class that would deliver stable returns while advancing tangible impact.

The opportunity is ours to prove, but the appetite is there.

It’s been a packed quarter, and we’re grateful not only for the conversations we’ve had, but also for the community and stakeholders pushing them forward. 

Are you building, investing, or just curious? Then let’s keep talking! 

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About Bridgin

Bridgin is Solaris Offgrid's Receivable Financing Solution. Conceived as an online trading platform for accounts receivables, it allows distributors of essential services to unlock liquidity over assets through the sale of their outstanding invoices to investors, offering investors a unique chance to tap into a previously untapped asset class at a lower risk.