Ant Financial plans to accelerate expansion, raises funds worth $14bn

Ant Financial, the financial associate of the Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba, has reportedly completed a Series C funding round with a mammoth $14 billion, raised from both domestic and international investors.

According to a statement released by Ant Financial, the fundraising round consisted of both yuan denominated tranche which came from current shareholders and dollar denominated tranche invested by global institutions. Reputed investors included Khazanah Nasional Berhad of Malaysia, Temasek and GIC, the sovereign wealth funds of Singapore as well as the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board. It also included some private equity groups like Silver Lake Partners, Warburg Pincus, and General Atlantic.

According to reliable sources, the current valuation of the firm is at $150 billion which makes Ant Financial the world’s most valuable private tech startup. This is a big jump for Ant Financial which had a previous valuation of $60 billion in 2014 when it raised a record $4.5 billion.

Reliable sources quoted Ant Financial to state that the proceeds from the fundraising round will be invested in accelerating globalization plans and developing technology. The company currently operates money-market fund Yu’e Bao, Alipay app and a banking branch in China. Now Ant Financial is aiming at providing worldwide financial services and widening its consumer base. In an effort to achieve its objective, Ant Financial recently acquired stakes in several Asian financial institutions such as Telenor Microfinance Bank of Pakistan and fund-transfer service bKash in Bangladesh while testing a version of Alipay in Hong Kong in a joint venture with CK Hutchison Holdings owned by billionaire Li Ka-shing.

Ant Financial is also setting itself up as a provider of advanced technologies, a means that might help in generating increased revenues in the future. The company recently signed a deal to provide AI-enabled risk management and biometric identification systems to Chinese banks like Shanghai Pudong Development Bank and China Everbright Bank.