What is Bridge Funding?

Bridge funding is event-driven capital. It exists to carry a business from where it is now to a specific upcoming event — a contract closing, an acquisition funding, a property sale, a permanent facility coming online — and then it exits. The discipline of a good bridge structure is that you only pay interest for the days you actually use the money. If the event closes in 45 days, you carry the cost for 45 days, not for a year.

On paper, the annualized rate can look expensive. But once you understand that the loan functions like a line of credit you pay off in 60 days, the math shifts. You are giving up a few points on a high-margin transaction to get the deal across the finish line. That tradeoff almost always works when the exit is real and visible.

Bridge funding is usually the first step in a longer financing sequence. The bridge closes in days; the larger, cheaper facility takes six to eight weeks to underwrite. Closing the bridge first lets the business keep operating while the permanent structure is assembled in parallel.

The most important part of a bridge structure is the exit. A bridge with no visible repayment source is not a bridge — it is expensive working capital. "Investors who seem interested" is not an exit. An asset-based line already in underwriting, a property under contract, or a signed contract with an assignment of claims is an exit. We will only structure a bridge when the takeout is concrete.

As of 2026, bridge facilities run from $50K to $5MM+. Typical closings happen in three to seven business days, with capital outstanding for 30 to 180 days. Pricing is Prime plus 4–8%, often interest-only, with aggressive early-payoff discounts that reward paying it off as soon as the exit event closes.