China’s Ant Financial, the payment affiliate of Alibaba, has raised a total of $14 billion.
It was a yuan and dollar-denominated tranches. Investors included Singapore’s sovereign wealth funds GIC and Temasek, Malaysia’s Khazanah Nasional Berhad and the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board. Private equity groups
included Warburg Pincus, Silver Lake Partners and General Atlantic.
Alibaba owns 33% of Ant Financial.
Ant Financial is the world’s highest-valued private technology startup, surpassing ride-sharing firm Uber Technologies.
They will use the money to invest developing technology and globalization. They operate the Alipay app, money-market fund Yu’e Bao and its own online banking branch in China. They plan to eventually provide financial services for consumers worldwide.
They made deals to provide biometric identification and A.I.-enabled risk management systems to several Chinese banks, including China Everbright Bank and Shanghai Pudong Development Bank. They invested in Bangladesh and Pakistan financial companies.
Brian Wang is a Futurist Thought Leader and a popular Science blogger with 1 million readers per month. His blog Nextbigfuture.com is ranked #1 Science News Blog. It covers many disruptive technology and trends including Space, Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, Medicine, Anti-aging Biotechnology, and Nanotechnology.
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