From Reuters, May 28:
Ant Financial Services Group, operator of China’s biggest online payment platform by market share, Alipay, has closed its latest funding round having raised $10 billion from a clutch of global and local investors, five people with direct knowledge of the matter told Reuters.
Ant’s first fundraising targeting global money values the firm at $150 billion, the people said, compared with about $60 billion after its previous fundraising in April 2016.
A number of global sovereign wealth funds and private equity firms joined the fundraising as main investors. They include Singapore’s sovereign fund GIC Pte Ltd [GIC.UL] and state investor Temasek Holdings (Private) Ltd [TEM.UL], as well as U.S. private equity firm Warburg Pincus LLC [WP.UL], the people said.
Malaysian sovereign fund Khazanah Nasional Bhd [KHAZA.UL] has also joined as a major investor, one of the people said.
The funding round also brought in private equity firm Carlyle Group LP and venture capital firm Sequoia Capital, which typically invests in early-stage start-ups, three of the people said.
The amount and investor line-up are finalised and the transfer of funds is underway, the people said....MORE
