Bridge, a Citi-backed AI-powered lending platform, has announced the launch of a $500 million direct lending fund designed specifically for consumer packaged goods (CPG) brands and retail suppliers fulfilling purchase orders for major retailers. Since spinning out from Citi in 2023, Bridge has deployed more than $800 million and facilitated financing for hundreds of growing businesses. The new fund marks the company's next phase of growth, driven by demand from suppliers selling into America's largest retail chains.
The fund launch comes at a time when suppliers face significant financial pressure. When a brand wins an order from a major retailer, the win often comes with a financing gap: the supplier must pay for manufacturing, raw materials, packaging, freight, and compliance before the goods are delivered and long before the retailer pays. This timing mismatch can force strong brands to drain operating cash, raise equity for routine production, delay fulfillment, or turn to financing options that are fast but costly and opaque.
Bridge's approach uses AI to analyze the business, the order, and the retailer relationship more deeply than legacy underwriting allows. This enables the company to move faster and approve strong suppliers that traditional lenders might overlook. The company funds up to 100% of a brand's production costs on expected or confirmed orders, with repayment structured around when brands receive payment from retailers.
The impact is already visible. Through its work with Walmart, Bridge funded DogSauce, a pet-food super broth meal topper, which expanded from 1,200 to 3,000+ Walmart stores on a single order that nearly doubled the brand's prior year revenue. Dakota Sheets, founder of DogSauce, highlighted the importance of this financing: "When Walmart calls with an expansion like this, you don't want to say no. But the financing gap between production and payment is real, and Bridge makes it possible to fill the orders without giving up equity."
Walmart's Senior Director of Global Treasury, Brandy Newhof, noted that "Bridge's Purchase Order Financing Program gives Walmart suppliers an additional option for funding their orders. Expanding the range of capital options available to our suppliers is one of the ways we support our supplier community."
Rohit Mathur, CEO and Co-Founder of Bridge, explained the broader context: "Retail is being reshaped by volatility in tariffs, freight, oil prices and consumer demand, and the pressure often lands first on the growing suppliers that have the least room to absorb it. Bridge is using AI to put capital to work for the businesses that need it."
Harte Thompson, Co-Founder and COO, added: "Plenty of lenders are happy to extend capital once a brand has delivered the goods and there's an invoice out. Lending against the credit risk of a major retailer like Walmart isn't hard. But Bridge supports growing brands when they actually need it, when they are building the inventory to fill an upcoming order. That's the moment capital is hardest to find, and when it's not there, good brands get pushed into expensive, opaque financing or dilutive equity raises just to fund routine production."
For more information, visit bridge.co.
