Satispay Raises Over €18 Million in Its Third Funding Round

By LTP

• Record-breaking figure for Satispay’s fundraising
• The third funding round has closed at over €18 million
• The new capital increase brings the total funding to over €26.8 million
• Among the subscribers: new important institutional and industrial partners

Milan, September 7, 2017 – Satispay is a young company from Italy that is contributing to the e-payment revolution with a mobile payment system that is independent and alternative to traditional networks. With an initial target of €12 million, Satispay has officially closed its third round of funding having reached €18.3 million, a record high for the Italian market. To date, Satispay has thus raised a total of €26.8 million, and the company’s post money valuation currently lies at approximately €66 million.

Satispay’s potential was evident from the start as a number of prominent managers and entrepreneurs invested in past rounds. These include Jonathan Weiner and Ray Iglesias (former executives from Google Wallet and co-founders of Money20/20), Nicola Carbonari (Founder of Autoscout24), Giuseppe Donagemma (former Vice President Networks of Samsung Electronics and Nokia), as well an important investor and industrial partner, Iccrea Banca. While investors such as Iccrea Banca have reconfirmed their confidence by subscribing to the new capital increase, this operation also marks the entry of new key institutional partners:

Banca Etica. Having already signed a distribution agreement in mid-2016, Banca Etica is among the first banks to recognize value in Satispay’s service. By participating in this investment round, Banca Etica confirms its strong orientation towards innovation, which in the last two years has seen it constantly engaging in an important digitalization of services in order to offer private clients and businesses an experience that combines efficiency in financial services and commitment to human rights and the environment.

Banca Sella Holding. Gruppo Sella’s support of Satispay, through Sella Ventures, reflects a strategy to work with the best tools on the market, both proprietary or by third parties, in order to promote a comprehensive vision of the electronic payment segment. This decision reaffirms the role of the Group among the financial institutions that have always been at the forefront of research and development of cutting-edge technology.

Smartclub. Another major investor, Smartclub is managed by Ersel’s Senior private Banker, Alessandro Fachin, who was able to involve the group of prominent Italian entrepreneurs that has already demonstrated its capability in making a difference in the development and growth of the company.

Shark Bites. Venture Capital founded by important members of the Italian entrepreneurial scene, particularly those active in the digital and traditional industries, which will also support Satispay’s growth with its industrial expertise.

Giandomenico Genta, Satispay S.p.A President, commented: “The composition of new institutional investors clearly highlights the interesting involvement of banking institutions that are particularly committed to the development of innovation and digitalization processes, a global trend that sees FinTech as a challenge but also as a great opportunity for the traditional players that are able to look ahead and catch it. Another important aspect of the new investors that subscribed to the capital increase is made of those who have been able to see in advance what the Satispay ecosystem can become. In fact, among the partners there are important industrial realities and private subjects in the territory of Cuneo, where the service debuted and began developing before anywhere else. Here, with a regular usage by about 35% of the population, between consumers and merchants, entrepreneurs of the area have been able to witness Satispay’s potential, about a year ahead of the rest of the country, and therefore deciding to participate in the project.”

A significant example among this category of investors is Egea; multi-utility based in Alba that is active throughout the country, with whom Satispay intends to create important synergies and bring strong innovation to the recurring payments market.

As a whole, the latest investment round has rewarded the vision and implementation of a growth strategy that has enabled Satispay to achieve remarkable results in a short amount of time. Satispay has distinguished itself with an innovative business model, intuitive customer experience and impressive market penetration rates; elements that led the company to obtain a leading position in Italy within the rapidly evolving mobile payment segment.

Available on the market since January 2015, Satispay’s astonishing growth can be attributed to a “merchant-first” strategy that aims to create the first electronic payment solution to suit all types of retailers; from the small family-run bar to the leading brand in mass market retailer, both offline and online. As a result, a total of 19,000 commercial activities across Italy have already registered to accept payments via Satispay and this number is constantly rising by approximately 70 new merchants per day. The number of consumers is also noteworthy. Today, Satispay has over330,000 app downloads of which more than 175,000 are active users who exchange money on a daily basis and make an average of 8 purchases per month. The number of private users is currently growing at a rate of about 600 signups per day.

Alberto Dalmasso, Satispay’s Co-founder & CEO, commented, “The capital increase was made with the goal of consolidating our position as the national mobile payment leader. It will allow us to invest in a number of new value-added services. To name a few, the Cashback will become an increasingly prominent and sophisticated marketing tool, new goods and services will be integrated directly within the platform (as was the case with phone credit top-ups, which immediately received incredible market response), consumer credit paid in installments (expected for this autumn) and much more. Our goal is that Satispay will become the first payment system that strengthens the relationship between stores and their customers. Satispay places a powerful tool in the hands of the merchants that allows them to communicate promotions and services while allowing consumers to pay in installments. In addition to the ever-important participation of the members who have supported us from the beginning, such as ICCREA and Banca Alpi Marittime, we are proud to have seen the entry of many notable private subjects who are passionate about the project because they live and work in areas of great diffusion of the service and for which the choice to invest comes from appreciation for the product we have created. Not only has our President Giandomenico Genta’s direction been essential in this capital increase, but being based in Cuneo, he has also been crucial to our growth from day one. Cuneo will remain one of our chosen territories for experimentation. This operation clearly demonstrates that in order to attract important investments it is crucial to show that the service works; that is why before looking abroad we want the whole of Italy to become the benchmark.”