Saible raises £2.9m to fix UK construction's late payment crisis

Saible, a Birmingham-based construction fintech, has closed a £2.9m angel funding round to expand its Digital Parallel Payment Account platform, which releases approved payments simultaneously across every tier of a construction supply chain rather than letting funds trickle, and stall, down from contractor to subcontractor.

The raise arrives at a moment of acute financial stress in UK construction. Industry data shows the sector recorded 4,450 insolvencies in 2025, up 9% year-on-year and the worst figure across any UK industry for the fourth consecutive year. A further 1,180 firms failed in Q1 2026 alone. Research published in June by accountancy firm Menzies found that 93% of construction and property companies report late payments, with invoices averaging 53 days overdue, and that 86% are already in or at risk of serious financial distress.

The structural cause is well understood: on large projects, four or five contractor tiers can separate the project owner from the smallest supplier. Firms holding funds at each layer have a persistent incentive to delay payment, effectively using subcontractors as a source of free working capital. When a major contractor fails, as ISG did in 2024, leaving more than £1.1bn in unpaid debts, the losses fall hardest on the smallest firms furthest from the top.

How DiPPA works

Saible's DiPPA model addresses this by holding project funds in a regulated trust structure through banking partner Griffin, then releasing approved payments to all tiers simultaneously once sign-off is confirmed. The project owner pays a 0.25% fee on the payment value; the supply chain pays nothing. Saible provides the approvals, verification and audit software layer; Griffin holds the regulated float.

"Late payment in construction goes beyond the balance sheet," said Jarvey Moss, co-founder and chief executive of Saible. "It creates pressure that runs through businesses, workers and families. When firms are waiting months beyond agreed terms, people are left worrying about whether they can pay staff, suppliers, and themselves."

Saible is running pilots with the Environment Agency and BAM Nuttall on government-backed projects. The first is expected to be a £1.5m–£2m footbridge replacement commencing summer 2026, with a programme duration of 12–16 months. The pilots follow a Cabinet Office-sponsored review of payment problems in construction and are designed to generate evidence on payment timing and supply-chain reach that can inform wider public-sector reform. Alongside the angel round, Saible is opening a limited £50,000 Crowdcube allocation, running from 15 to 31 July, to allow smaller construction businesses to invest alongside its angel backers.

Regulatory tailwind and cross-sector read-across

The political context sharpens the investment case. The Small Business Protections (Late Payments) Bill, introduced in May 2026 and currently progressing through the House of Lords, proposes a ban on retention payments, a 60-day cap on payment terms, and mandatory interest at 8% above base rate on overdue invoices. The Department for Business and Trade estimates late payments cost the UK economy £11bn annually. That legislative pressure is expected to accelerate demand for auditable, compliant payment infrastructure.

The broader significance for cross-sector investors is the convergence of regulatory reform, proptech infrastructure and fintech rails. Saible's model sits at the intersection of three trends that capital allocators are watching in parallel: the UK government's drive to modernise public procurement, the growth of embedded financial infrastructure in vertical software platforms, and the accelerating digitisation of physical-economy supply chains. Construction is the most immediate stress case, but the trust-based parallel payment model is architecturally applicable to any multi-tier supply chain where payment latency creates systemic insolvency risk, logistics and large-scale energy infrastructure projects face structurally similar dynamics.

For investors weighing exposure to UK real assets and the software layer that governs them, Saible represents an early-stage but operationally live test of whether fintech rails can structurally de-risk a sector that has defeated regulatory intervention for decades.