Italy’s Scalapay raises €40M to help European ecommerce merchants offer ‘buy now pay later’ options

Of late, there are more consumers buying stuff online, especially young shoppers. However, not all may want to pay the entire cost of the purchase up front. They might prefer to take the convenient ‘buy now and pay later’ option rather than using a credit card. As per a survey by Cardify, a data firm that tracks consumer spending, almost half the customers claim that they spend between 10 per cent and 40 per cent when they use this option. This option attracts those who want to purchase “want” items that they may not be able to purchase otherwise.

This is what Milan-based Scalapay is all about. It is a payment method meant for European e-commerce merchants that lets customers buy now and pay later in three easy instalments sans any interest.

Easy integration of its solution

Scalapay just announced that it secured a whopping €40M seed funding. The investment round was led by Fasanara Capital along with participation from Baleen Capital and Italian family office Ithaca Investments. With this fund, the platform lets e-commerce sellers offer their ‘buy now pay later’ options to their customers.

“When comparing solutions used by merchants to improve customer experience and their bottom line, interest-free instalments stand apart for the high return on investment. We immediately have a big impact on revenues and the integration effort is minimal,” says Simone Mancini, co-founder and Chief Executive Officer. “This new funding allows us to support our pipeline of merchants across Europe and further our mission by giving merchants exciting tools to make their ecommerce experience magical.”

Besides the investment, Raffaele Terrone (former investment banker at Goldman Sachs) joins as the CFO and Mirco Mattevi (previously worked at Afterpay) joins as Head of Product and Daniele Tessari with experience in online and physical retail joins as Sales Manager.

Eyes to expand into new markets

Recently, Scalapay signed a partnership with Raisin Bank, a leading pan-European Banking-as-a-Service provider. Raisin Bank offers customised and innovative products to customers, including fintech companies, family offices and investment companies. As a result of the partnership, Raisin Bank will support Scalapay’s expansion throughout the EU.

How does Scalapay work?

Scalapay established by Simone Mancini and Johnny Mitrevski lets customers choose its ‘buy now pay later’ option while they checkout by setting up an account in just two to three minutes. They can pay using a Visa, Mastercard, Amex or any other bank account. Once they choose this, the payment will be debited automatically from their accounts on the due dates.

Well, Scalapay splits the payments into three convenient instalments without any interest. This helps merchants grow their sales, attract new customers and provide a better customer experience.

Wondering how the Italian startup does this? The company assumes all risk of fraud by paying the online merchants the full cost immediately. With this solution, merchants get higher sales volume from both existing and new customers. As per the company, its financing tool increases average order value by almost 50 per cent.