5 Facts About Ant Financial Which Became World’s Most Valuable Private Internet Company At $60B Valuation
Ant Financial, which is an affiliate of Alibaba has successfully raised $4.5 billion from a bunch of high profile investors. Valued at roughly $60 billion, Ant Financial has now become world’s most valuable private Internet company.
Besides, the amount of $4.5 billion as VC funds is also world’s highest infuse of VC funds in a single go.
Uber, which is right now valued at $51 billion is in the midst of a venture capital investment; after which, its value would become $62.5 billion. Xiaomi is the third most valuable tech company, with a valuation of $46 billion; followed by AirBnB at $25.5 billion.
Two groups of high profile investors led this recent round of funding into Ant Financial: one group headed by Chinese sovereign wealth fund CIC, the other group led by a China Construction Bank, which is one of China’s state-owned banks.
5 facts about Ant Financials
1) Ant Financial is an affiliate of Alibaba, which launched World’s largest IPO ever created. Ant Financial’s main product is Alipay, which is often called Paypal of China due to its massive reach. As of today, 450 million+ Chinese use Alipay (which is more than double of Paypal users), and 58% of all online transactions happening in China is done via Alipay!
2) Alipay is right now used by Chinese to transfer funds, make online purchases, buy movie tickets, book cabs and even invest in various financial plans. The name ‘Ant’ has been christened because Ants signifies millions of small business owners, and Alibaba wanted to help this mass of small businessmen in China to transact freely, and without any additional overheads.
Ant Financial also owns money-market fund Yu’ebao, loans provider Mybank, and Sesame Credit, a rudimentary credit scoring system.
3) The scale and magnitude of this recent investment into Ant Financial can be gauged from the fact who participated in it. $740 billion sovereign-wealth fund China Investment Corp. (CIC) is one of the investors, which means that China is looking at Alipay as a revolutionary financial product.
4) Ant Financial’s latest round of VC funds is aimed at raising an IPO next year; which can actually overtake Alibaba’s IPO in absolute values. Last year, they bought a stake at postal Savings Bank of China before launching a $10 billion IPO at Hong Kong. It is expected that a domestic IPO would be first launched in China, before going for the big launch at American markets. Once the IPO happens, Alibaba will own 37.5% in the venture. Alibaba had spun off Ant Financial in 2011 and Jack Ma has voting rights in its board.
5) Ant Financial & Alibaba has invested $680 million in Paytm, acquiring 40% stake in the venture. After their investment last year, Paytm founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma’s stake reduced to 21%; other investors include SAP Ventures, Reliance Capital, Silicon Valley Bank and others, including the company’s management team
As per reports, this Alipay will use this new round of funding to expand into deep rural hinterland of China, enable more businesses to transact using their platform, enhance the technology aspect and to make their platform more robust.
Alibaba is a unique amalgamation of technology, Internet & finance; and the massive valuation will certainly have a ripple effect across the global market.
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