Scalapay, a Milan-based fintech payment solutions scaleup company, has closed a new Serie B mega-round worth 497 million dollars, which thus leads the company to be worth over one billion dollars and therefore enter the list of unicorns (see the press release here).
Scalapay has developed a payment solution for third parties that allows customers, online and offline, to buy immediately and pay later (Buy Now Pay Later or BNPL) without interest, in three or four installments.
The round was led by Tencent and Willoughby Capital, with the participation of Tiger Global and Fasanara Capital (former investors in previous rounds), Gangwal, Moore Capital and Deimos.
The scaleup only last September 2021 had raised 155 million dollars, based on a valuation of 700 million dollars (see here a previous article by BeBeez), in a round led by Tiger Global and in which Woodson Capital had also participated, in addition to investors in the 48 million dollars roun of January 2021, Baleen Capital, Fasanara Capital and the Italian family office Ithaca Investments (which has already invested in Italy’s fintech startups such as Fido, Yapily and Soldo)) (see here a previous article by BeBeez).
Scalapay has then raised over 700 million dollars in funding to date. Since its Series A round in September, Scalapay has increased its payout volume three times month to month.
Founded in 2019 by Simone Mancini and Johnny Mitrevski, flanked by Raffaele Terrone, Mirco Mattevi and Daniele Tessari, the company follows in the footsteps of the Swedish unicorn Klarna, who, founded in 2005, brought the BNPL model into vogue, acquiring in particular in the 2020 the Italian Moneymour specialized in online purchase installment services (see here a previous article by BeBeez).
“With the interest-free installments, we have transformed one of the most frustrating parts of the shopping experience, the payment, into something pleasant,” Simone Mancini, co-founder and ceo of Scalapay, commented and added: “Now, with Magic, we’re taking it one step further and helping European merchants transform their entire checkout experience, leverage a broad shopper network, and deliver repeat-like shopping experiences that drive significant increases in conversions. ”
Since its launch, Scalapay has extended its services to Italy, France, Germany, Spain, Portugal, Finland, Belgium, Holland and Austria and the team has reached 150 people. Scalapay already boasts over 3,000 partner merchants, including Decathlon, Calzedonia, Alberta Ferretti, Intimissimi, Liu Jo, Luisa Spagnoli, Moschino, MSGM, Twinset, Bata, Aosom and Bricobravo, Samsonite, Nike and Pandora.
Scalapay is only the latest in a series of Italian scaleups to raise hundreds of millions of dollars from international venture capital firms and to enter the Olympus of unicorns, but it is in reality the only truly Italian scaleup that has achieved such a result. Actually other unicorn scaleups were founded by Italians, but they are based abroad (we are talking about Sysdig, TrueLayer, Kong). Then there is the hybrid case of Depop, the mobile application used by fans of online fashion and accessories purchases and sales, born in Italy in 2011 from an idea by the not-so-Italian entrepreneur Simon Beckerman and developed in the headquarters of the very Italian H-Farm, which was sold last year to Etsy, the American marketplace listed on Nasdaq, for 1.625 billion dollars.
