From L to R: Raffaele Terrone, Simone Mancini, Johnny Mitrevski, Pingki Houang | Image credit: Scalapay
Online shopping has seen a massive boom in recent years, especially for young shoppers. However, not everyone wants to pay the entire cost of the purchase upfront, with some preferring to take the convenient “buy now and pay later” (BNPL) option. This is where Milan-based BNPL platform Scalapay looks to make a difference.
The startup announced on Wednesday that it has raised $497M (approx €441.68M) in its Series B round of funding led by Tencent and Willoughby Capital. Scalapay also reports that it has now earned the status of a ‘unicorn’ with a $1B+ valuation.
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The round also saw participation from Tiger Global, Gangwal, Moore Capital, Deimos, and Fasanara Capital.
The company had raised €131M in its Series A round, and the current round brings the total funding raised to about $700M to date.
“Pay through three interest-free instalments”
Scalapay was founded in 2019 by Simone Mancini and Johnny Mitrevski, who were later joined by Raffaele Terrone, Daniele Tessari and Mirco Mattevi as part of the founding team.
The platform lets customers choose its “buy now pay later” option while they checkout by setting up an account in just two to three minutes. Customers can pay using a Visa, Mastercard, Amex, or any other bank account. Once they choose this, the payment gets debited automatically from their accounts on the due dates.
Scalapay’s BNPL offerings include three options for customers – Pay in 3, Pay in 4, and Pay Later. Customers are not required to make any payments upfront and can instead opt to pay in three instalments, four instalments, or entirely after 14 days. The company says that this helps merchants grow their sales, attract new customers, and provide a better customer experience.
Simone Mancini says, “With interest-free instalments, we transformed one of the most frustrating parts of the shopping experience, the payment, into something pleasurable. Now with Magic, we are going one step further and helping European merchants transform their entire checkout experience, leverage a large network of shoppers, and offer repeat-like purchase experiences which drive significant increases in conversion.”
Johnny Mitrevski, CTO of Scalapay, adds, “With Magic, we have removed all the common friction points at checkout and addressed key reasons for cart abandonment such as signup or login, shipping, payment selection, and privacy consents. We have done this while respecting Europe’s strict PSD2 and GDPR rules.”
Since its inception, Scalapay has offered its services in Italy, France, Germany, Spain, Portugal, Finland, Belgium, Netherlands, and Austria. Since their Seed funding in January 2021, The company has a team of over 150 people.
Scalapay claims that its payment solution has provided 3,000+ merchant partners with an immense impact, marking the platform as one of the most used payment methods in Southern Europe and the highest-ranking payment solution on Trustpilot as it relates to customer satisfaction.
Capital utilisation
Scalapay says that the funds will help them double its workforce by the end of this year. Additionally, they also have plans to expand their executive team and the company’s board. One of the company’s recently added board members is Amit Jhawar, former CEO of Venmo and former COO and CFO at Braintree.
Scalapay currently works with major international merchants and retailers, including Shein, Decathlon, Calzedonia, Morgandetoi (Beaumanoir Group), Swappie, Moschino, Don’t Call Me Jennifer, Samsonite, Nike, and Pandora, among others. They are also the official sponsor of the Milan Fashion Week.
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