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 group of global and local investors, five people with direct knowledge of the matter told Reuters.
Ant's first fundraising targeting global money valued the company 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 and state investor Temasek Holdings (Private), as well as US private equity firm Warburg Pincus LLC, the people said.
Malaysian sovereign fund Khazanah Nasional Bhd 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 finalized and the transfer of funds is underway, the people said. The funding round includes a separate tranche of about 7 billion yuan ($1.1 billion) in new shares that has not been finalized, two of the people said. The people spoke to Reuters on condition they not be identified as the deal details are not yet public.
Ant, controlled by Alibaba Group Holding founder Jack Ma, declined to comment. Carlyle, Temasek and Warburg declined to comment.
The capital-raising comes ahead of a widely expected IPO, though Ant hasn't publicly set a timetable or chosen a likely stock exchange.
A $150 billion valuation would make Ant's IPO one of the biggest ever - compared with the $104 billion of Facebook Inc six years ago and Alibaba's $168 billion in 2014.
A fundraising document seen by Reuters showed Ant planned to list both in the Chinese mainland and Hong Kong in 2019, and its investors joining the latest fundraising could expect to exit within one to three years.
Strong demand from investors looking to position themselves ahead of Ant's potential IPO resulted in a much higher amount than an initial target of up to $5 billion, which Reuters earlier reported.
