Milan-based Satispay, an independent payment network that bypasses banks and credit card companies, raised a €320M Series D led by Addition at a €1B+ valuation
More signs that the economy is slowing down in Europe, and that costs are going up, are driving merchants and consumers …
Context & Ripple Effects
Satispay had already established a funding trajectory with its €93M round at a €248M valuation in 2020. The new financing marks a substantially larger valuation for a payments network positioned outside bank and card-company rails.
Its move sits alongside financing for account-to-account alternatives including Banked's merchant-acceptance network and kevin.'s card-less payments service, making merchant payment acceptance a more contested European fintech category.
First-order effects
- Satispay gains €320M of new capital and a €1B+ valuation, strengthening its position as an independent network for merchants and consumers seeking an alternative to conventional card payments.
- Addition's lead investment gives Satispay a higher-profile institutional backer than in its earlier funding round, when Square invested $18M.
Second-order effects
- Banked and kevin. face a better-capitalized rival for merchants considering account-to-account or card-less acceptance, increasing the importance of differentiating their onboarding and payment flows.
- Card-payment providers serving merchants must contend with a more highly valued alternative whose stated model bypasses card companies, particularly as merchants focus on rising costs.
Third-order effects
- If similarly funded account-to-account networks keep gaining merchant adoption, European payment acceptance may become less concentrated around card rails and more competitive at the network layer.
- The funding pattern separates payment specialists from adjacent consumer-credit players such as BNPL provider Scalapay, as merchants weigh lower-cost acceptance against financing-led checkout products.
The trend: European fintech funding is backing payment networks that seek to shift merchant acceptance away from traditional bank and card rails.