Scalapay secures $497m in Series B funding

European buy now, pay later (BNPL) provider Scalapay has reached unicorn status following a $497 million Series B funding round led by Tencent and Willoughby Capital.

Tiger Global, Gangwal, Moore Capital, Deimos, and Fasanara Capital also participated in the investment round.

To date, Scalapay has raised $700 million in funding, having been founded by Simone Mancini and Johnny Mitrevski in 2019.

It has plans to double the number of its employees by the end of this year, and to expand its executive team and board.

The southern European BNPL fintech also announced the launch of a new platform called Magic.

“There is an incredible opportunity for Magic to redefine European ecommerce, which has a lesser reputation compared to its US peers,” said Mitrevski.

“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 whilst respecting Europe’s strict PSD2 and GDPR rules.”

Mancini added: “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.”