Alibaba’s financial services platform Ant Financial completed its Series B financing on Tuesday, landing USD 4.5 billion. It is reportedly the largest single round of financing in IT industry history, surpassing financing rounds for Didi Kuaidi, Uber and Facebook.
New investors in this round of financing include China Investment Corp Capital and CCB Trust. Ant Financial’s Series A investors including China Life, China Development Bank Capital and Primavera Capital Group also joined this round.
“We want to ensure an equal opportunity of financial services for all through our technology, achieve sustainable development with our financial system, and build an inclusive financial system globally,” said Eric Jing, President of Ant Financial, in an announcement.
The company claimed on its Sina Weibo on Tuesday that the newly landed financing will be used in security improvement, research and development, international strategy and attracting talent.
The company may go public in China this year. This USD 4.5 billion in financing has reportedly raised Ant Financial’s valuation to USD 60 billion. If it were to go public it would likely be one of the largest IPOs in China.
As Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba’s financial affiliate, Ant Financial was spun off of Alibaba in 2011. The company operates Alibaba’s major financial services including “China’s PayPal” Alipay, micro finance service Yu’e Bao and online banking service MYbank.
(Top photo from chinabusinessnews.com)