Ant Financial, the financial services affiliate connected to Alibaba which operates the Alipay mobile payment service, has confirmed that it has closed a Series C funding round that totals an enormous $14 billion to invest in blockchain.
The cash will boost Ant’s firepower ahead of a widely expected initial public offering (IPO) in Hong Kong and mainland China as early as next year, though the company has neither publicly set a timetable nor chosen a likely stock exchange.
Ant has long been a key fintech company in China, where it claims to serve offer 500 million consumers and offers Alipay, digital banking and investment services, but it has begun to replicate that business overseas in recent years. In particular, it has made investments and set up joint-ventures and new businesses in a slew of Asian countries that include India, Thailand, Korea, Indonesia, Hong Kong, Malaysia, the Philippines, Pakistan and Bangladesh.
The exercise amounted to the largest confirmed single fundraising round in history, according to data provider Crunchbase.
Ant Financial, spun off from Alibaba Group Holding Ltd before the e-commerce firm’s 2014 listing, has played a major role in shaping China’s financial technology landscape. It oversees the largest mobile payment app in what is increasingly becoming a cash-less society.
Ant Financial CEO and executive chairman Eric Jing said in a statement.
“We are pleased to welcome these investors as partners, who share our vision and mission, to embark on our journey to further promote inclusive finance globally and bring equal opportunities to the world. We are proud of, and inspired by, the transformation we have affected in the lives of ordinary people and small businesses over the past 14 years.”
Blockchain technology is what’s known as “decentralized” and is considered by advocates to be tamper-proof, cheaper, and more efficient. Bad actors would need to hack into multiple systems to change any information, making the data almost unhackable. It also speeds up transaction efficiency and gets rid of the need for a third-party intermediary, like a bank.
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