Ant Financial Services Group, the financial services arm of Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding, has completed raising US$4.5 billion in a series B round of financing in one of the largest fundraising deals by an Internet company globally, according to a company announcement reported by China's state media.
The final tally is larger than previously reported fundraising amount RMB20 billion (US$3.1 billion) and a valuation of around US$60 billion.
Investors in the round include two investor consortium led by CIC International, the Chinese sovereign wealth fund's international investment arm, and a unit of China Construction Bank.
CIC International was established in 2011, with a mandate to invest and manage overseas assets, including public equity and bond investments, hedge funds and real estate investments, private equity fund investments.
Existing investors including China Life Insurance (Group) Co., Postal Savings Bank of China, CDB (China Development Bank) Capital and Primavera Capital also participated in the round.
Jin Xiandong, president of Ant Financial, says the company will use the latest proceeds on risk control, technology improvements and internationalization.
In July 2015, Ant Financial announced completion of its first round of fundraising from investors including the National Social Security Fund.
The round, which saw Ant Financial selling a 12.4% stake to outside investors, reportedly valued Ant Financial at around US$45 billion.
China Post Capital, the investment unit of state-owned postal service China Post Group Corp., made a strategic investment in Ant Financial in September 2015, to reportedly become its second largest shareholder.
Ant Financial runs Alipay, China's largest online payments platform, online money-market fund Yu’e Bao, China's largest money-market fund with more than RMB600 billion of assets, MYbank and other services.