ProjectPay, a new construction project payment platform, has received public funding to provide small businesses and contractors with easy access to affordable working capital, addressing a critical gap in existing financial products.

ProjectPay provides payment protection for construction industry projects, securing funds and guaranteeing prompt payment for contractors across the building supply chain. 

The business has been awarded over £700,000 in grants by Innovate UK to scale up its offering.

The patented ProjectPay platform, which is backed by Lloyds Bank, aims to address endemic issues within the industry by targeting cash flow shortages, a primary cause of delayed payments in the construction sector, and mitigating payment default risks for small businesses and debt providers.

The business was founded by Louise Stewart, former chairwoman of an Australian Sub-Contractors Association, whose husband lost his subcontracting business after five builders went out of business without paying him. In 2019, she stood as an independent election candidate in Australia to campaign for statutory protection for payments on building projects.

She moved to the UK from Australia, supported by the UK Government’s Global Entrepreneur program, and the UK government is proving a more receptive supporter of the innovative digital payment platform, playing into the government’s sustainable economic recovery agenda and Construction Playbook strategy to bolster resilience for small businesses and contractors. 

ProjectPay’s mission is to revolutionise the financial landscape of the construction sector,

providing fast and guaranteed payments, eliminating the need for contractors to waste time chasing late payments. The company’s solution, based on embedded payments, will prevent big contractors using payments that belong to subcontractors as free working capital, instead of passing on those payments. It removes payment default risks from the construction industry, making it more attractive to banks, lenders and investors.