SAPI Raises $80M to Scale Payment-Linked Financing for Small Businesses

London-based fintech SAPI has raised $80 million (nearly €69 million) in fresh capital to expand its payment-linked financing services and support more small businesses at a time when traditional credit access remains constrained. The new injection is set to accelerate SAPI’s mission of building tailored credit products for payment companies, enabling them to offer merchants fast, embedded access to funding without taking on the complexity of running lending operations themselves.

SAPI positions itself as the “liquidity layer” for the global payments ecosystem, helping merchants secure the working capital they need through the payment providers they already use. By integrating financing directly into transaction flows, SAPI aims to solve one of the most persistent challenges faced by small businesses worldwide: reliable, flexible access to credit.

A Financing Model Built Into the Payments System

Founded with the goal of reshaping how small businesses obtain capital, SAPI designs, tailors and manages custom credit products that sit directly within payment platforms. Instead of applying for loans through banks, a process that can be slow, paperwork-heavy and often out of reach where merchants receive financing options directly through their payment processor, based on their real-time transaction data.

This model, known as payment-linked financing, allows credit decisions to be informed by live business activity rather than traditional credit scoring alone. For merchants, it means faster approvals and repayment methods tied to daily revenue. For payment companies, it offers a new revenue stream and a retention tool without requiring them to build risk engines, underwriting teams or regulatory infrastructure. SAPI handles the full credit lifecycle (underwriting, servicing, operations and risk management) while payment companies embed the experience into their existing dashboards and merchant interfaces.

Addressing the Credit Gap Facing Small Businesses

The funding arrives at a time when small and medium-sized businesses are navigating tougher economic conditions. Higher interest rates, increased operating costs and cautious lending by traditional banks have widened the global SME credit gap. Many merchants are experiencing slower approvals or reduced access to working capital, despite stable revenue flows.

SAPI’s approach aims to fill that gap by tapping into the payments data that banks often overlook. This allows for more nuanced assessments of business health, particularly for merchants in retail, hospitality and e-commerce sectors where real-time cash flow matters more than legacy credit metrics. By enabling payment companies to become credit enablers, SAPI is helping create an alternative financial infrastructure designed around accessibility and speed. The company argues that this is becoming increasingly essential, especially as digital payments continue to replace cash across markets.

A Growing Demand for Embedded Credit Infrastructure

Embedded finance, the integration of banking and financial services directly into non-financial platforms has grown rapidly over the past few years. Payment providers, in particular, are investing in value-added services that help them differentiate in a competitive market. Offering capital to merchants has emerged as one of the most impactful ways to improve retention and empower small businesses to grow.

SAPI’s platform is designed specifically for this shift. Its technology allows payment companies to launch fully customized credit products without having to engineer them internally. The company manages the heavy lifting, while payment providers offer an integrated user experience. As more merchants turn to payment processors like gateways, PSPs and neobanks, these platforms have become key distribution channels for financial products. SAPI aims to sit at the center of this transformation by supplying the credit infrastructure behind the scenes.

Strategic Impact of the $80M Raise by SAPI!

The newly raised capital will support SAPI in scaling its operations, expanding into new regions and deepening its partnerships with payment companies globally. While the company has not disclosed specific investors or expansion markets in the latest announcement, the funding is expected to accelerate both engineering development and credit capacity.

With the additional capital, SAPI can take on more risk, serve larger merchant volumes and broaden the types of credit products it offers. It also gives the company the financial strength needed to support payment partners who operate across multiple geographies. The company’s positioning, building liquidity solutions that scale with the global payment ecosystem, reflects a broader industry trend: payment companies increasingly want to offer financial tools that go beyond transaction processing. With this raise, SAPI is better equipped to power that shift.

A Mission to Power Liquidity Across Global Payments

London fintech startup SAPI describes its long-term mission as enabling liquidity for the global payment ecosystem. Taken broadly, this suggests a future where payment-linked financing becomes a standard offering across platforms, from point-of-sale systems and online gateways to emerging fintech infrastructure layers.

As digital payments accelerate and data-rich transaction histories become the norm, firms like SAPI are pushing the idea that capital should move as easily as payments themselves. The $80M raise positions the company to play a central role in this transformation, especially for merchants who rely on quick access to working capital to manage operations, inventory and growth.

With the new funding, SAPI is signaling that embedded credit which was once a niche fintech idea is becoming a foundational piece of the global commerce stack.