Italian unicorn Scalapay pays out as it acquires Cabel IP

Italy’s first unicorn, Scalapay, a buy-now-pay-later provider, has acquired nearly 40 years in business Italian payment institution Cabel IP S.p.A. The strategic step aims at finalising Scalapay's deployment in Europe and supporting the launch of new products and services.

The transaction was concluded on March 2, 2023 - Scalapay becomes the sole shareholder of the company. Cabel IP  S.p.A  will be renamed Scalapay IP S.p.A.

"This license means that merchants can now integrate Scalapay via their payment service provider (PSP)," said Simone Mancini, CEO of Scalapay. "We have a long waiting list of merchants who want to integrate our solutions through their PSP. Many of them are looking for an alternative BNPL solution that has a higher level of awareness and offers more value to merchants."

Scalapay was founded in 2019 by Simone Mancini and Johnny Mitrevski, to offer consumers the possibility to pay in three installments without fees on their favourite online stores, Rapid growth has seen Scalapay conquer the Italian e-commerce market. Taking advantage of the explosion of the BNPL payment method, Scalapay reached unicorn status in 2022 with a valuation of 1 billion euros. It has since continued its expansion in France and Spain.

"Across Europe, merchants are adopting Scalapay's payment solutions to acquire more customers and increase their sales. I would even go so far as to say that we are the most valued BNPL provider in Europe based on NPS (90+) and customer satisfaction ratings," says Mancini.

With a more than 5,000 stores and 7,000 physical points of sale on its books Scalapay is reaching more than 3.5 million users with its pay in instalments without charge solution. It names Veralab, Douglas, Patrizia Pepe, Twinset, Alpitour and Best Western amongst its customers.