It’s a big day for Italy today, as payments platform Scalapay’s $497m Series B gives the country its first unicorn since the dotcom boom. Scalapay’s Series B comes just five months after its Tiger-led Series A last September, which pushed up its valuation after its seed round in January 2021. It launched in 2019. 

Scalapay says its payment volumes have increased 3x since its Series A, and although the startup won’t confirm its exact new valuation a source familiar with the matter tells Sifted that the new raise “puts them well into unicorn status”.