CrossBoundary Access

A Platform Not A Project

CrossBoundary Access didn’t set out to build a single power plant. It set out to build something rarer: a distributed utility — a company that could aggregate dozens of small, unglamorous rural mini-grids, battery-swapping hubs and other energy access technologies into a single, investable portfolio. Do that, the thinking went, and you could attract the kind of long-term infrastructure capital that has always flowed to gas plants and toll roads, but never to the last mile.

IFC’s funding, which would ultimately be used to cover the indirect costs of running and scaling the platform, was about 9 months behind AfDB’s timeline. The deal was on track and moving through the ordinary approvals of a large development institution considering a new investment, but CrossBoundary Access couldn’t wait 9 months. They needed runway to reach the other side of that process without slowing construction, without letting momentum sag at exactly the moment when construction was gaining steam and investors were watching most closely.

Open Road’s Impact 

This is precisely the kind of gap Open Road exists to close. We stepped in with flexible capital — a bridge loan not tied to any particular use of proceeds — to fund the platform’s project and operational costs through the final stretch — the months between “the deal is agreed in principle” and “the wire has landed.”

Repaid in June 2026 after the IFC’s investment disbursed, Open Road’s loan allowed CrossBoundary Access to build upon their construction momentum. Not only were they able to maintain electrification of 170,000 households during the tenor of our loan, they actually grew their revenue while waiting on IFC’s funding to come in.

Read the full case study on Open Road’s Substack, Thoughts from the Road: https://openroadimpact.substack.com/p/a-platform-not-a-project