News

November 19, 2020

Jack Dorsey’s Square invests in Italian fintech Satispay

Milan-based Satispay has secured €93m in funding to expand its digital payments service internationally


Freya Pratty

2 min read

Milan-based Satispay has secured €93m in new funding to expand its digital payment system. Notably, the round included investment from Jack Dorsey’s payments company Square. 

San Francisco based Square was joined in the investment round by China’s Tencent Holdings, LGT Lightstone and TIM Ventures. It’s reported that Square’s investment total was €15m.

Satispay was founded in 2013 and has raised a total of €110m to date. The latest funding will be used to expand in Italy and abroad, the company said, after already moving into Luxembourg and Germany.

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With 1.3m users, Satispay is Italy’s largest mobile payment provider and its system is currently used in 130,000 stores, including chains like KFC, Carrefour, Burger King and Auchun. 

“Our goal is to become the leading payment network in Europe and develop an ecosystem of value-added services useful for both users and merchants, even the smallest ones,” said Alberto Dalmasso, co-founder and CEO of Satispay.

“Square and Tencent both lead the mobile payment industry in two of the world’s biggest markets. By placing their trust in our company, we are certain to be moving in the right direction.”

Square was launched by Dorsey, cofounder and CEO of Twitter, in 2010. The company has put more emphasis on opportunities outside of the US recently, particularly in Africa — Dorsey announced plans last November to move to the African continent, but tweeted recently that coronavirus had made him reconsider his move. 

Satispay has been unaffected by the pandemic, reporting a 78% increase in transactions in the first ten months of 2020 — accounting for €400m in transaction volume — compared to the same period last year.

The company employs 120 people in its offices in Milan, Luxembourg and Berlin. After the latest investment round, Satispay is valued at €248m, the company said.

Freya Pratty

Freya Pratty is a senior reporter at Sifted. She covers climate tech, writes our weekly Climate Tech newsletter and works on investigations. Follow her on X and LinkedIn