Bonside Partners with i80 Group to Boost Brick-and-Mortar Expansion
Bonside Partners with i80 Group
Bonside, a pioneering credit platform for physical storefronts, has recently announced its strategic partnership with i80 Group, a well-known private investment firm. This partnership is set to infuse $100 million into the brick-and-mortar segment, significantly enhancing the funding opportunities for service-oriented businesses operating in physical locations.
This initiative comes at a time when many brick-and-mortar enterprises often struggle to access efficient financing solutions for expansion. According to Dylan Mark, Senior Vice President at i80 Group, high-quality physical businesses frequently encounter barriers in securing adequate financial resources for growth. Mark highlighted Bonside's innovative approach to capital and technology—specifically through their Repeatable Revenue Agreement (RRA)—as a game-changer for these businesses.
The RRA leverages state-of-the-art AI technology to assess numerous data points pertinent to brick-and-mortar operations, allowing Bonside to create comprehensive credit evaluations. This proprietary system connects to business accounting systems to consolidate historical data into what is known as the Bonside Scorecard. This Scorecard is more than just a credit evaluation; it features a dashboard with a quadrant assessment calibrated on over 20 weighted, industry-specific metrics, ensuring that both financial and operational insights are available at a glance.
Bonside can create detailed Scorecards for a wide array of retail tenants, from individual store operators to national chains. This universal credit language helps non-public brands articulate their financial health more clearly. Thus far, Bonside has made 50 investments based purely on these Scorecards, managing to maintain an impeccable track record of zero defaults while exceeding multi-year return benchmarks. By partnering with i80 Group, Bonside's total available capital now surpasses $130 million, which will significantly enhance the scale and frequency of funding accessibility.
The Scorecard not only furnishes needed clarity for stakeholders in the brick-and-mortar ecosystem but also streamlines the process of securing capital for new locations. An embedded functionality allows brands to share their credit evaluations with property managers and landlords when exploring retail space opportunities. This feature reduces transaction costs and facilitates smoother negotiations, thus promoting a more conducive environment for business growth.
Neha Govindraj, the founder of Bonside, emphasized the importance of their credit platform, which is specially tailored to uplift the physical business sector of the economy. She mentioned that the partnership with i80 Group aligns perfectly with their mission to develop transformative infrastructure for brick-and-mortar enterprises. Innovative solutions enabled by this collaboration are set to revolutionize how businesses access funding and interact with capital markets.
In summary, Bonside is not just contributing to the growth of individual businesses but is also playing a crucial role in revitalizing the broader brick-and-mortar industry. Its strategic vision, enhanced by the partnership with i80 Group, is anticipated to bring substantial benefits not only to the businesses directly involved but also to the economic landscape overall.
About Bonside
Founded in New York City, Bonside emerged onto the scene in June 2023 as a dedicated platform to provide insightful financial solutions and capital access to physical businesses on a large scale. Notably, in May 2025, they solidified their position within the real estate investment space by forming significant equity partnerships with entities like Kimco Realty and Nuveen Real Estate.
About i80 Group
Established in 2016, i80 Group is a registered global investment firm recognized for providing asset-based solutions that facilitate company scaling during critical growth phases. With an asset management portfolio of approximately $2 billion, the firm operates from its headquarters in New York and has an office in London.