Ant Financial raises record $4.5bn to fund expansion
Alibaba-affiliated Ant Financial  has reportedly closed a record-breaking $4.5bn funding round, lead by China’s sovereign wealth fund and state lender China Construction Bank. The deal values the company at roughly $60bn, representing an increase of 33% since its previous funding round last summer, and makes it the second-most valuable private technology company in the world after Uber.  Ant Financial, which already has 450m active users, operates Alipay, China’s PayPal rival, and plans to use the funds to expand its financial services in rural China, invest in IT, and fund overseas acquisitions. Since splitting from Alibaba in 2014, Ant Financial has expanded into wealth management and banking. 

Ant Financial, the affiliate of Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba that runs Alipay, has closed a funding round of over $4 billion valuing the company at close to $60 billion dollars, a source close to the deal told CNBC.

Previous media reports had put the funding at $3.1 billion, but the latest round is significantly higher.

This makes Ant Financial the second-most valuable private technology firm behind U.S. ride hailing app Uber, which is worth over $62 billion, and ahead of Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi, which has a valuation of $45 billion.

The roughly $60 billion valuation is higher than the $45 billion it snagged during its previous funding round last summer.



Zhang Peng | LightRocket | Getty Images

China's sovereign wealth fund called China Investment Corporation, and China Construction Bank , one of the big four lenders in the country, led the round, according to the source.

JPMorgan , Goldman Sachs and China International Capital Corp were the advisers for the deal, which could be announced in the next few days before the Chinese public holiday on May 1, the source added.

Ant Financial runs China's biggest payments service Alipay which boasts a total of 450 million active users and processes 170 million transactions per day.

The company has been on a drive to expand Alipay beyond China, particularly to help Chinese tourists make purchases abroad using its platform.