Partnering with Brightwild

SMEs are at the heart of the renewables rollout and the main route by which its economic benefits reach more people. They need small, patient, affordable debt of $50k–$250k. Equity dilutes ownership and erodes mission, large-scale debt is out of reach, and grants are one-off.

Lenders avoid this segment, not only because of risk, but because underwriting a $50k loan costs almost as much as a $5m one. That is why the gap exists.

Brightwild is a not-for-profit, evergreen lender built to close it. Our own platform automates the work of lending, with people making the key decisions, so small loans become viable at scale. Capital recycles rather than exits: each dollar is lent, repaid and lent again, and as the platform learns, transaction costs and loss rates fall.

We lend to encourage good business. Loan ladders and rate reductions reward borrowers who hit repayment and good-practice milestones. And we back infrastructure, not one-off installations: our borrowers are the entrepreneurs who deploy distributed energy and create local economic value.

Two ways to work with us

Core capacity funding builds, runs and trains the platform and funds a lean team across the UK and Africa.

Capital to deploy goes into the recycling loan pool. For larger funders we can act as a delivery partner, deploying your capital as hundreds of small catalytic loans you could not operationally make yourselves.

A commitment of any size contributes to both.

How we make small loans viable

Underwriting a loan of this size has typically cost $15–30k. Our platform runs the full loan lifecycle, from due diligence to monitoring, with a human in the loop for key decisions. As volume grows the system learns and the cost per loan falls towards a $2k target, with a credible path below it.