Home » Satispay closes a 320 million round. Italy has its second one billion euro startup

Satispay closes a 320 million round. Italy has its second one billion euro startup

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Satispay closes a 320 million round.  Italy has its second one billion euro startup

The Italy of startups, its second unicorn. Satispay got an investment from 320 million of euros bringing the total raising of capital to 450 million, with a valuation that makes it rightfully enter the club of technology companies with a valuation more than a billion. In ten years since its foundation, the mobile payment system founded by Alberto Dalmasso has managed to scale its reference market to enter the radar of international investors.

A billion dollar company is a rare occurrence in the global digital economy. This is demonstrated by the fact that in the vocabulary of startups they are called unicorns. But it is an even rarer event in Italy where this sector of the economy has developed late compared to other countries. “We now have the necessary resources to unload all our potential and become the most used payment instrument in Italy and Europe”, Dalmasso comments. Born in 1984, from Cuneo, he founded his company together with Samuel Pinta e Dario Brignone. The entrepreneur will be among the guests of the Italian Tech Week.

Satispay: from zero to 3 million users. 200 thousand exhibitors

Satispay is a fintech. Just as a fintech is the other unicorn created in Italy in the last decade: Scalapay. Although in reality the first Italian unicorn is Yoox, Satispay and Scalapay are part of another generation of startups compared to the fashion ecommerce founded in 1999 by Federico Marchetti. For Satispay, the new investment round (series D, the fourth investment round obtained) sees the entry into the international fund company such as Addition, a venture capital of New York, while Greyhound Capital has increased its stake after the investment of the 2018. Coatue, Lightrock, Tencent, Mediolanum and Block remain among the investors, all entered in 2021.

“For us this investment is a qualitative leap. It brings us the awareness that we have done something great in ten years. Now we have important resources and much more experience ”, Dalmasso explains to Italian Tech. Today Satispay has been used for approx three million people. It has a network of 205,000 active stores, which is constantly growing. The company grows. Not just for the network and the number of people who use it.

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300 employees in Italy. There will be 600 by 2023

“Currently we have 300 employees. But we assume with an average of one person per day and we expect to double their number in 12-18 months ”. A startup that will employ 600 people. A mirage in Italy of industrial and job crises felt more as an urgency than as an opportunity. An unimaginable scenario only ten years ago, when Satispay was born and with it the Italian startup ecosystem was born with the law that came into force in September 2012 which provided these companies with a suitable regulatory framework to make them grow.

“A lot has changed since then. That decree made sure that something was born. Italy is still lagging behind other countries, but technology reaches everywhere. Today tech companies are born that are able to mature and become so large that they also attract investments from abroad. This investment shows that we have entered the radar of international investors. Great managers will arrive who will help us grow even more ”, adds the entrepreneur.

Dalmasso: “The pandemic has shown our potential”

The three million customers in Italy come mainly from Piedmont, Lombardy, Emilia Romagna, Lazio and Puglia. While in Europe it is present in Germany, Luxembourg and has just landed in France. A constant growth, which the new capital raised is destined to accelerate.

But the turning point came in recent years: “An event that made us realize that we were on the right path was the pandemic. With the arrival of the Covid I saw a company that reacted quickly to the needs of the moment. We have found a system to speed up payments in pharmacies and supermarkets, ”adds Dalmasso.

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Then, the Cashback of State, which Satispay has made it possible to obtain and has expanded the number of users. “We realized that we had speed and a technology that led us to seize every single opportunity. The path was right, our approach was right, ”he continues.

From renewables to fintech, Dalmasso: “Doing business was my path”

Dalmasso was not born an entrepreneur of the digital economy. “My first company was involved in renewables. I created it three years before Satispay with my brother. It is the one that allowed me to earn even when Satispay did not give me a salary ”.

Family activities. Like the hazelnut field in the province of Cuneo which gave its first harvest last year: “It was my grandfather’s land, bought on his return from Argentina. The first harvest was very good, but for us they are family projects, their value for me is the ability to bond even more with each other ”. The passion for fintech comes at the time of the university, when he becomes passionate about the history of money.

“This whole process is behind the birth of Satispay. Little things that made me realize that doing business was the most suitable path for me “. Having created the second unicorn in the recent history of the Italian digital economy is a confirmation.

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