EIB approves TechEU Scale-Up Debt loan for BNPL unicorn Scalapay as EU rules tighten around consumer credit and digital payments.
The European Investment Bank (EIB) has approved a $81.5m (€70m) scale-up debt facility for Italian buy now pay later (BNPL) provider Scalapay, positioning EU public money behind a sector which is facing mounting regulatory scrutiny across Europe.
The financing, signed by EIB Vice President Gelsomina Vigliotti and Scalapay CEO Simone Mancini on December 9, is the first time the EU lender has provided direct funding to an Italian unicorn.
The deal comes via the EIB’s Scale-Up Debt instrument, part of its new TechEU platform, which plans to commit €70 billion in equity, quasi equity, loans and guarantees between 2025 and 2027 in order to mobilise €250 billion of real-economy investment. TechEU is explicitly targeted at innovative, higher-risk companies and the enabling infrastructure that Europe hopes will narrow the funding gap with the US.
Strengthening Europe’s BNPL and digital payments ecosystem
Scalapay, founded in 2019, is now among Europe’s leading BNPL players, offering interest-free instalment options to more than 11 million users through over 10,000 merchant partners across southern Europe, including brands such as Douglas, Lastminute.com, OVS Group and JD Sports.
According to the EIB, the €70 million facility will be used to expand Scalapay’s products and services, simplifying the end user experience and supporting new interactive payment services as the firm pushes to consolidate its position in the European BNPL market.
Vigliotti said the transaction would “strengthen the European digital payment ecosystem”, arguing that TechEU is designed to support innovative companies “from the initial idea to stock exchange listing and beyond” so that “our tech champions can grow and stay in Europe”.
Mancini framed the deal as validation of Scalapay’s model, saying the funds would help it “broaden our product range and better support the development of the markets where we operate”, while giving customers “more products and better flexibility to meet their needs”.
Public capital steps into a tightening regulatory landscape
Across the EU, BNPL providers are about to fall under much stricter rules as member states transpose the Second Consumer Credit Directive (CCD2) into national law, with application from November 2026. CCD2 brings many BNPL models explicitly into scope, imposing tougher requirements on creditworthiness checks, fee transparency and marketing, with the aim of tackling over-indebtedness and loan stacking.
In the UK, which sits outside the EIB’s direct remit but remains a key BNPL market, the Financial Conduct Authority is preparing to regulate BNPL (renamed deferred payment credit) from July 2026, with mandatory affordability checks and full consumer credit protections. The FCA has warned that BNPL is now mainstream, with more than 10 million adults using it and a significant minority holding sizeable outstanding balances.
Against that backdrop, the EIB’s support can be read as a bet that well-capitalised, compliant BNPL providers will be the long-term winners in a more tightly regulated market. Scale-Up Debt financing is designed not to dilute founders or existing private investors, which may be especially appealing as BNPL providers face potentially higher compliance and funding costs while transitioning to fully regulated models.
TechEU, InvestEU and the politics of European fintech
The Scalapay transaction sits at the intersection of several EU flagship initiatives. TechEU is being presented by the EIB as the largest innovation financing programme in Europe’s history and is intended to support strategic areas such as digitalisation, artificial intelligence, defence, cleantech and space, alongside financial infrastructure like payments.
The loan is also backed by the EU’s InvestEU programme, which uses an EU budget guarantee of €26.2 billion to expand the risk-taking capacity of implementing partners such as the EIB Group, with the aim of mobilising at least €372 billion of additional investment. Digital transition and innovation are among its core priorities.
