Customer Spotlight: Built

Built Technologies has transformed the real estate & construction financial ecosystem by developing a cloud-native platform that centralizes critical project documentation—unlocking operational efficiency and accelerating the flow of capital in the complex world of construction lending and payments.

The Challenge: Fragmented Payment Systems in Construction Lending

The construction lending process has traditionally been burdened by fragmented, paper-based systems that create significant bottlenecks. Construction loans—specialized financial instruments that release funds in scheduled disbursements as project milestones are completed—require extensive documentation at each phase. These staged disbursements, known as "draws," represent critical funding points where property owners (borrowers) request funds from their lenders to pay general contractors (GCs), who in turn compensate their subcontractors. In addition to manual processes, this multi-tiered payment structure contributes to slow payments, high operational costs, and financial strain across project participants.

Built saw an opportunity to make construction lending faster and less risky. They created a platform to centralize all project documents, including project plans and budgets. This enabled lenders to verify construction progress, approve draw requests, and release funds more quickly. This gave both owners and lenders real-time visibility into construction progress, reduced funding delays, and eliminated the need for fragmented Excel-based workflows. By making the draw process more efficient, Built gave lenders greater visibility into their projects and faster funding for borrowers, improving cash flow downstream.

But Built didn’t stop there. The company recognized an even larger opportunity: transforming how funds flow across the entire construction value chain, not just within the lender-borrower relationship. That meant enabling real-time payments, automating compliance from lien waivers, and offering a seamless digital experience for everyone involved—from lenders to subcontractors.

Expanding Beyond Lending

A significant number of subcontractors wait longer than 30 days for payment, creating substantial cash flow challenges for these essential trade partners. Additionally, general contractors invest an average of over 50 hours per month managing payments—a considerable administrative burden that diverts resources from core construction activities. Studies suggest that a meaningful percentage of construction costs can be eliminated with faster, more reliable payment systems—representing billions in potential savings across the construction sector.

"We saw a huge opportunity to improve the flow of funds in construction, where slow payments create major bottlenecks," explains Mark Murphy, Head of Sales at Built. "By partnering with Modern Treasury, we're marching toward a vision to move money instantly across the construction value chain."

Strategic Partnership: Why Built Chose Modern Treasury

To realize this vision, Built needed to evolve beyond being a software provider. They needed to become a payments company––offering compliance-grade infrastructure, embedded ledgering, and real-time bank connectivity. That required leaving behind a third party-processor and entering the flow of funds themselves.

Built selected Modern Treasury as a strategic partner based on their ability to deliver secure, scalable, multi-bank payment operations. By unifying bank integrations, payments automation, and ledgering in one system, Modern Treasury enables Built to control the end-to-end customer experience, improve unit economics, and unlock innovative payment rails like RTP and wire draw-downs.

Built's strategic approach to payment processing leverages multiple bank integrations, creating a powerful competitive advantage in the construction finance space. By enabling lenders and owners to fund projects more efficiently, Built strengthens downstream adoption among general contractors and subcontractors. Modern Treasury's technology serves as a critical foundation, abstracting various banking rails into a unified system that allows for "plug and play" implementation regardless of the underlying financial institution.

Through direct bank integrations, Built will be able to process higher transaction volumes, lower transaction fees, and access innovative payment rails. For example, Built expects to unlock same-day funding and move toward instant pay-ins (via wire draw-downs from Owners to general contractors) and instant payouts (via RTP from GCs to subcontractors). Not only will this allow general contractors to send faster payments, but it will also help Built grow their customer base and float revenue.

Through payments infrastructure and ledgering, Built will be able to support audit-readiness and compliance. For example, Built expects to set-up an FBO structure that can process billions of transactions and drive accurate, efficient regulatory reporting. By linking virtual accounts, payment rails, and ledgers, Built can hold funds on behalf of their general contractors, ensure rapid disbursements, and maintain a record of all custodial balances. Not only will Modern Treasury allow them to track all funds flowing through their accounts, but having an external ledger will also establish Built as a trusted payments provider for continued growth.

"Modern Treasury is a true thought partner, helping us navigate the complexities of payments with a multi-bank strategy that gives us more control," states Murphy. "With their platform, we can help customers move funds faster, build better supplier relationships, and reduce costs—positioning Built as the financial engine behind smarter construction and real estate.”

The Future of Real Estate Commerce

Looking ahead, Built aims to become the central platform for real estate commerce. By moving into the flow of funds, they will gain visibility and control; optimize their customer experience with same-day funding; and lay the foundation for continued innovation, like developing a payments network at scale.

Modern Treasury is delighted to partner with Built and power their vision for faster construction payments.