SAPI, a London and Hanoi based small business finance platform, has secured an $80m funding package to accelerate its next phase of growth. The company, founded in 2020 by former Goldman Sachs executive Mai Le and ex AlixPartners professional Alexis van Lennep, focuses on payment linked lending for underserved entrepreneurs. The latest capital injection combines debt and equity and reflects growing investor confidence in embedded finance models that operate directly within existing payment flows.
Funding round overview
The new round includes roughly $75m in debt financing and $5m in equity from both new and existing investors. Hudson Cove, a US based alternative credit asset manager, led the transaction, while Triple A Capital and Passion Capital continued their support. This blended structure gives SAPI additional lending capacity while also strengthening its balance sheet for technology investments and operational expansion.
Business model and product
SAPI offers payment linked financing that collects repayments directly from card and account to account transactions processed by partners. By integrating with payment service providers, marketplaces, brokers, vendors, and fintech firms, the platform delivers advances that are automatically repaid at source through existing payment streams. This model is built to match repayment schedules with a business’s real time trading, improving cash flow predictability and reducing administrative burdens.
Focus on underserved founders
The company reports that around 90 percent of its loan book supports small businesses owned by immigrants and women, groups that frequently face barriers when seeking bank credit. Mai Le emphasizes that having the right financial partner at a critical moment can change the trajectory of a business and create long term economic impact. SAPI positions its offering as a response to shrinking external financing options for smaller British businesses and aims to broaden access through more inclusive underwriting.
Growth strategy in embedded finance
With the new capital, SAPI plans to scale its repayment at source technology and strengthen its partnerships with payment platforms in the United Kingdom and internationally. Embedded finance, which enables financial services to be offered within software or commerce tools, continues to gain momentum and is expected to exceed major thresholds in Europe over the coming years. By providing liquidity as a service and credit infrastructure, SAPI seeks to become a foundational layer for this shift rather than a traditional lender competing for direct customer acquisition.
International footprint and Asia expansion
Alongside its headquarters in London, SAPI maintains an office in Hanoi and recently established a dedicated financial technology entity in Vietnam to deepen its reach across Asia Pacific markets. The company plans to deploy part of the newly raised capital toward expanding engineering, underwriting, and commercial teams across its global hubs. Leadership believes its payment linked model has strong potential in high growth regions where digital payments are widespread yet traditional credit access remains limited.
SAPI’s $80m raise underscores rising investor confidence in alternative credit platforms that use payment data to align lending with real trading activity. With a portfolio centered on immigrant and woman-led businesses, the company is framing its expansion as both an inclusion focused initiative and a commercial strategy. If SAPI can scale internationally while preserving credit performance and deepening its embedded finance partnerships, it will strengthen its position as a key player in modern small business lending.
Source: Sky News