Sydney start-up Bridgit has raised $14.6m as it takes on the wealth transfer market

A Sydney based financial start-up which wants to position itself as the lender to Aussie home ‘downsizers’ has raised $14.6m.

Bridgit co-founders Nick Jacobs and Aaron Bassin, who is also chief executive.

A Sydney short-term loan start-up founded by a first generation Ukrainian Australian entrepreneur has raised $14.6m and taken out a $125m debt raise to grow its services.

Bridgit, which was founded in 2021, is attempting to take over the so-called downsizer market – one that’s beginning to grow as new tax initiatives provide older Australians with an incentive to move into smaller properties.

The company also wants to be a financial saving grace for those with inherited wealth, who might be asset rich but without the capital needed to shift out of their current home or invest in other ventures.

Aaron Bassin founded the business three years ago after stints with MoneyMe, KPMG, Deloitte and Morgan Stanley.

The 32-year-old founder said he has always had an eye on the housing market, and that home ownership was a dinner table conversation growing up.

“We always spoke about property ownership at the dinner table; you know, it was the great Australian dream,” he told The Australian.

“Witnessing my parents go from renting to becoming homeowners and increasing the equity in their home was something that really inspired me and built this innate passion for property and how mortgages work.”

The start-up's average loan size for people looking to buy another place before selling is $1m, and is typically assessed in between 30 and 40 minutes. Mr Bassin said the whole process was typically wrapped up within four months.

The start-up, previously known as Techlend, raised the new capital via OIF Ventures, as it hit a new milestone of $600m in short-term lending annually.

Mr Bassin met his co-founder, Nick Jacobs, a top-100 mortgage broker nationally, through a mutual friend, Matt Leibowitz, the co-founder and director of stock brokerage platform Stake. Mr Leibowitz was their first investor.

The start-up, which employs 26 people out of Surry Hills in inner Sydney, plans to increase its services and build its tech stack.

Bridgit will compete with a number of new fintech in the downsizing space, including a start-up called Downsizer which raised $3.75m last year.

The market is being fuelled by federal government-announced changes in the 2022 budget allowing a non-concessional superannuation contribution of $300,000 from the proceeds of selling a home.

About 1.72 million homeowners are considering moving to a smaller property over the next five years, 84 per cent of whom are aged 60 or older. Of those, 67 per cent of those want to do so within the next two years, while 42.7 per cent are prepared to spend between $1m and $2m on their next property.

Bridgit’s growth in the market arrives as Australia is on the cusp of one of the largest transitions of wealth in decades.

The great wealth transfer, as it has been coined, arrives as ageing baby boomers pas an estimated $4.9 trillion worth of assets, as measured by CoreData.

There’s about 1.6 million Australians considering downsizing over the next five years, according to Mr Bassin, who described Bridgit’s product as one that “democratises lending” and one that “levels the playing field” for those without capital but high-value assets.

“We’re probably the only dedicated provider in this category, with Bridgit allowing Australian homeowners to unlock the equity that they’ve earned and saved over their lifetime in their property,” he said.

Originally published as Sydney start-up Bridgit has raised $14.6m as it takes on the wealth transfer market