Platform Launched to Digitize, Protect and Streamline Building & Construction Sector Payments

New solution removes financial risks on payments following prediction of sector bankruptcies

Texas, USA, January 11th, 2023 – Construction and building digital payment platform ProjectPay, has launched its solution in the USA to remove payment risks, while simplifying and streamlining payments in the building and construction industry. Built on proprietary technology, it’s the first end-to-end, secure digital payment solution available in the USA, built specifically for small and mid-sized construction businesses and project owners.

Now live, the SaaS digital payments platform guarantees payments at all levels of a project’s supply chain by removing contractors’ bankruptcy risk – speeding up payments to contractors and trade subcontractors and improving cashflow for the small businesses that make up 98% of the sector.

ProjectPay’s platform enables project owners and their lenders to keep track of project payments and ensure all payments are being used as intended, to pay subcontractors. In the USA, project owners carry the unacceptable risk of having a lien placed on their property if their payments have not been passed on to their subcontractors, or their general contractor becomes bankrupt.

Project owners have had no way of knowing if their payments have been passed down the payment chain until now. ProjectPay provides this transparency and eliminates the risk of a lien being registered on their property, which may require them to pay for work twice to have it removed.

Its patented technology connects the project’s payment chain to ensure payments are passed on for work completed by subcontractors, linking cascading project wallets with the payment request, approval and payment settlement process.

At least 19 states in the USA have implemented statutory trust statutes in their state law to enforce the proper use of project payments, to protect construction payments from misuse and bankruptcy. However, they have been largely ineffective and difficult to enforce. Often, it is not discovered until after a bankruptcy that appropriate ledgers have not been maintained, to track who payments belong to. ProjectPay removes the complexity in the project payment process with digital ledgers that automatically track payments and ensure state law compliance.

“Our mission is to eradicate delayed and no-payment in the construction sector globally,” said CEO, Louise Stewart. “The platform provides, simple, fast, and guaranteed payments with payments protected from contractor bankruptcy and misuse. By removing complexity in the pay application and invoicing process, and by connecting the payment chain, we are eliminating the biggest cause of delayed and no payment in the sector.”

The platform has won several building innovation awards internationally and has received extensive grant funding support from the UK government. It has also received government funding to develop an embodied carbon emissions tracking tool for construction projects, to implement into their existing digital payments platform. It allows the linkage of embodied carbon measurements with project supply chain payments – incentivising contractors to either reduce carbon emissions on projects or pay to offset them. While many small businesses have been struggling to get paid, they are now being pushed to deliver net zero without clear means to do so.

“Net zero will be difficult for the industry to achieve without fixing the payment process and providing a financial incentive to reduce emissions.” – Louise Stewart, CEO

With an extensive user base already established across the UK and Australia, the solution is integrated with several leading international banks for its project wallet provisions. It provides a commercial and scalable solution to ring-fencing and streamlining payments.

“ProjectPay’s cascading project wallets and digital ledgers connect the entire payment chain and ensure payments for building works completed by small business contractors go to the people who did the work. It protects homeowners from financial devastation should their builder become bankrupt or having misused their payments instead of paying subcontractors,” added Ms. Stewart.

ProjectPay has been tested on more than $20m worth of projects and has worked with governments in Australia and the UK to eliminate payment risks to ensure payments flow to small business subcontractors on large government projects. The tech has digitised and simplified these processes so now everyone can easily eliminate their payments risks on any project big or small.

With offices in London and Australia, the business is now looking to scale up rapidly in the USA, starting in California and Texas, with “best fit” capital partners and VCs within the start-up community.

ABOUT PROJECTPAY

ProjectPay is the global digital payments and emission reduction platform for the building and construction sector that provides simple, fast, and guaranteed project payments. Built on proprietary technology, it is the first end-to-end construction payment solution built specifically for small and mid-sized construction businesses that make up 98% of the sector.

With users across the UK and Australia, It has received recognition from the UK government, has won a number of industry awards for innovation, and has received extensive grant funding from the UK government.

ProjectPay was established by CEO and Founder, Louise Stewart, a former global IT executive and experienced founder having successfully exited her first tech start-up in 2014. She previously chaired an Australian Subcontractors Association and has worked extensively with governments to solve the payment problems in the construction sector.

Louise relocated to the UK in 2020, after being selected and supported by the UK Government’s Global Entrepreneur program to expand the construction worker benefits of ProjectPay to UK building and construction organisations.

For more information

ProjectPay USA www.project-pay.com

Media contact:
Drennan du Plooy
Release Communications
drennan@releasecomms.com
+44 (0) 7950 129954