Four Years In — What We’ve Built and Where We’re Going

Four years ago, we launched Bridger Fund with a straightforward premise: that conservative, disciplined private lending on California commercial real estate could deliver meaningful, consistent returns to investors — without the volatility, the management headaches, or the market dependency that comes with equity investing. This month, as we mark our fourth anniversary, I’m proud to say that premise has held up.

The Numbers Tell the Story

When we opened the fund in 2022, investor yields started at our preferred return of 6% for the first few months. We built the portfolio carefully and deliberately — never chasing volume or stretching on leverage. Four years later, the results speak for themselves:

• $58.3M in assets under management across 33 active loans
• 50% average weighted LTV — well below our 65% ceiling
• 8.54% annual return for reinvestment distribution to investors in 2025
• 126 accredited investors — roughly a third taking monthly cash distributions, the rest reinvesting to compound returns
• Zero foreclosures since inception

Discipline Over Volume

From day one, our focus has been capital preservation first, yield second. Every loan in our portfolio is a first deed of trust, secured by income-producing commercial real estate in California, at a loan-to-value we’d be comfortable defending in a down market. That discipline is what allows us to point to four years of consistent performance with no principal losses.

We’ve also built real diversification into the portfolio — not just by loan count, but across property types, geographies, borrowers, and loan maturities. Our current portfolio spans multifamily, retail, office, and industrial properties, with exposure across the Bay Area, Southern California, the Central Valley, and beyond.

One of our greatest attributes is a strong loan committee underwriting every single loan. With approximately 100 years of combined commercial real estate experience between our partners, every deal is dissected by three partners who collectively make the decision to pursue or pass. No single person makes all the decisions — that checks-and-balances model is something our investors consistently tell us gives them confidence and peace of mind.

What We’ve Learned

The lessons that stand out most after four years are the ones that confirmed what we already believed. Borrower quality matters as much as asset quality. Geography matters more than most lenders admit. And staying conservative — even when a deal looks tempting at higher leverage — is always the right call.

Looking Ahead

We enter year five with the same principles we started with — and a stronger platform to execute on them. Our partnership with Slatt Capital, a leading California mortgage banking firm with a 55-year history and over $1.5 billion in annual production, continues to give us a sourcing and servicing edge that’s hard to replicate.

We’re grateful to every investor and partner who has been part of this journey. To learn more about the Bridger Fund and what we stand for, we invite you to watch our fund overview video. Here’s to what’s next.