South Africa's SME funding environment is not designed to meet the needs of SMEs. These small to medium enterprises are contributing 40% to GDP and employing 60% of the country's workforce, but they face a funding gap of Rs 350 billion because the funding models used to assess them were built for a different kind of business entirely. Many successful SMEs with proven track records are being rejected for the funding needed to expand their businesses or invest in critical infrastructure, creating a gap between perception of success and access to credit.
Bridgment was founded in 2016 to address this mismatch, addressing both the specific and structural challenges faced by SMEs. Often, SMEs are rejected for finance because the products do not fit the requirement, so Bridgement has developed a wide range of products that are designed to match the actual cash flow realities of SMEs. These include business loans, revolving credit and invoice finance options that are optimized for SMEs, not enterprises.
The second challenge is the gap between profit and cash flow. A business may show strong margins and still be rejected because cash is not coming in consistently enough to repay the loan. The problem is structural: the Public Service Commission (PSC), citing National Treasury data, reported that in the second quarter of the 2025/26 financial year, national and provincial departments had 95,399 invoices more than 30 days old – totaling R12.4bn – that had still not been paid.1. In the private sector, the end-to-end payment cycle can exceed 150 days. Adding to this, traditional lenders require three years of audited financial statements to assess creditworthiness. Most SMEs haven't had the time to meet that threshold, let alone the resources to turn to the compilation of those financial statements.
Using live bank data and direct integration with Xero, Sage and QuickBooks, Bridgement creates a real-time financial picture of SMEs in minutes without the need for audited statements or lengthy administrative processes. This integration provides verified, real-time data that is more accurate and more current than any set of historical financial statements from the previous fiscal year. The model reads live bank data, meaning it looks at the operational reality of SMEs.
Another challenge comes over the personal credit history of directors and shareholders as this directly depends on how traditional lenders evaluate a business. A director with overly extended personal credit may influence business approval, even if the business is performing well. Bridgment's data-driven valuation model evaluates the entire financial picture of a business, not just the person behind it.
“The technology and data exist to make access to funding easier,” says Daniel Goldberg, founder and CEO of Bridgement. “We consume financial data from accounting packages and bank accounts and use it to build a realistic picture of the business, meaning a viable SME is not turned away because their paperwork is not correct.”
Since 2016, Bridgement has deployed over R2bn to South African SMEs based on realistic visibility into financial stability and by providing relevant and specific funding solutions.
key insights:
- R12.4 billion in unpaid government invoices older than 30 days in Q2 2025, an increase of 17% quarter on quarter (National Treasury, March 2026)
- The typical end-to-end cash cycle for an SME supplying to a large corporate is 150 days
- R2bn+ has been deployed by Bridgement into South African SMEs since 2016
- 3 Cloud Accounting Platforms Bridgement is the only SME lender in South Africa with Xero, Sage and QuickBooks integration.
- Same-day turnaround from application to funding decision
- Up to R10m available within 24 hours.
In his own words:
“Waiting three to six months for payment is not compatible with running a healthy small business. Our mission is to give SMEs a funding partner that moves at the same speed by using technology to remove friction, paperwork and uncertainty from the process.” – Daniel Goldberg, Founder and CEO of Bridgement.
“By connecting directly to the accounting and banking tools SMEs already use, we can understand their businesses in real time and provide the right level of funding at the right time. This means our clients can spend less time managing cash flow and more time growing their businesses.” – Daniel Goldberg, Founder and CEO of Bridgement.