Bertzman Provides Bridge Loan to JIBU

Jibu is a social enterprise that promotes both entrepreneurship and affordable access to clean drinking water in Africa. The company’s expansion is based on a franchise model which identifies local owners and provides them with the required equipment and know-how to build their safe water businesses. Once Jibu identifies an entrepreneur and sets up a franchise, it leases equipment to the franchisee and retains ownership of some of the underlying assets.

Situation: In an effort to increase Jibu’s access to finance, they have secured an innovative arrangement with a lender to purchase the equipment from Jibu and lease the equipment back to Jibu through a revenue-based capital lease.

Complication: Jibu needed a minimum amount of working capital to initially comply with the terms of the finance agreement which was not readily available.

Solution: BertzmanSV provided a bridge loan that short cut the process of raising capital from investors to get their funding vehicle completed.

“We have worked on this project for more than two years. It is a complicated effort involving five parties: Aqua for All, Total Impact Capital, The United States International Development Corporation, Jibu and BertzmanSV,” explained Galen Welsch, founder of Jibu. 

“This financing vehicle is a huge win for Jibu and all of our partners and customers across East Africa who will have an increasing opportunity to access safe water and business ownership,” he added.

“We are thrilled to be able to have an impact on Jibu and the thousands of people who rely on them for the most basic of human needs, drinking water,” commented Neil Berman, co-founder of Bertzman.