Ant Financial Seeks $9 Billion in Funding at $150 Billion Valuation

Last week's IPO environment was very quiet. Ant Financial Services Group, the fintech company that operates the Chinese transaction payment service Alipay, noted plans for another funding round. Local and foreign investors appear to be acquiring additional equity ahead of a potential IPO, which could happen as early as the second half of 2018. 

• According to Crunchbase and the Wall Street Journal, Ant Financial looks to raise an additional $9 billion dollars before its highly anticipated IPO. According to the sources, the funding round could value Ant Financial at approximately $150 billion. Chinese business magnate Jack Ma spun the company out from his e-commerce company, Alibaba, back in 2011 due to Chinese financial transaction regulations. However, the previous parent organization seeks to re-gain a one-third stake in Ant Financial later this year. Ant Financial's business segments include: payment services, wealth management, and lending to small-business and medium-sized business owners.