Saible Raises £2.9M to Fix Construction's Broken Payment Chain

UK fintech Saible has closed £2.9M in angel funding to tackle one of construction's most stubborn problems: cash getting trapped or delayed as it moves through multi-tier supply chains. Its Digital Parallel Payment Account releases funds simultaneously to all supply chain tiers, rather than trickling down contractor by contractor.

Construction is one of the few industries where completing work on time is no guarantee you'll actually get paid for it. UK fintech Saible is attacking that problem directly, having raised £2.9 million in total angel funding — comprising £2.1 million already closed and a further £800,000 round — to scale its payment-control platform.

The Problem: Systemic Cash Extraction

On a large construction project, four or five tiers can separate the project owner from the smallest supplier. At each level, payments can be deliberately slowed or withheld — firms holding funds routinely use the float as interest-free working capital. The smallest subcontractors, furthest from the money source, absorb the longest delays.

This isn't just a cash-flow inconvenience. When ISG collapsed in 2024, it left more than £1.1 billion in unpaid debts, with hundreds of subcontractors going uncompensated for work already completed. According to research by UK advisory firm Menzies, construction recorded more insolvencies than any other UK sector for the fourth consecutive year, with 4,450 firms failing in 2025 — up 9 percent year-on-year — and a further 1,180 failures in Q1 2026 alone.

For the people running those firms, the consequences are immediate: missed payroll, layoffs, and owners working without pay to keep the lights on.

The Solution: Parallel Payments, Not Sequential Ones

Existing tools like Project Bank Accounts were designed to ring-fence funds, but in practice tend to protect only the upper tiers of the supply chain and involve significant administrative overhead.

Saible's Digital Parallel Payment Account (DiPPA) is engineered to go further. Rather than money flowing sequentially from main contractor down through subcontractor layers, DiPPA releases approved funds simultaneously across every tier of the supply chain. A firm five levels below the main contractor doesn't have to wait for every company above it to pass money along.

The mechanics:

Project funds are held in trust with regulated banking partner Griffin
Saible provides the software layer for approvals, verification, and audit
The project owner pays a 0.25% fee on payment value
The supply chain pays nothing

"Payment in construction is dysfunctional and is in desperate need of better control. This funding allows us to expand our platform, support our regulatory work, and take Saible into more live projects with project funders that need clearer control over how money moves through the supply chain." — Jarvey Moss, Co-founder and CEO, Saible

Live Pilots and Political Tailwinds

Saible is already in the field. It's working with the Environment Agency and BAM Nuttall on public-sector pilots, with the first expected to be a £1.5–2 million footbridge replacement commencing summer 2026 over a 12–16 month programme. The pilot emerged from a Cabinet Office-sponsored group examining construction payment dysfunction and is designed to generate evidence on payment visibility and supply-chain reach that could shape broader public-sector reform.

The political context is also shifting in Saible's favor. New and proposed late-payment legislation, tighter public procurement rules, and the Construction Playbook are increasing pressure on clients to demonstrate fair and timely supplier payments.

"Project Bank Accounts recognised the right problem, but they were never built to protect payment all the way down the supply chain. Saible is different because it gives clients and contractors a practical way to make sure money reaches the firms doing the work, not just the businesses at the top of the chain." — Phil Brown, Founder and Executive Chair, Causeway Technologies, and Saible investor

Crowdfunding Window Opens

Alongside the angel round, Saible is opening a limited £50,000 allocation on Crowdcube, running from 15 July to 31 July 2026, specifically intended to let smaller construction businesses and industry participants invest alongside institutional backers.

For fintech founders watching adjacent verticals, Saible represents a pattern worth noting: regulated trust infrastructure combined with workflow software, targeting an industry where payment dysfunction is structural rather than incidental. The 0.25% fee model placed entirely on the project owner — not the supply chain — is a deliberate design choice to drive adoption at the most vulnerable end of the market.