Alibaba Group’s Ant Financial has raised $4.5 billion from China Investment Corp Capital, National Social Security Fund, China Development Bank Capital, Primavera Capital Group and CCB Trust, including $1 billion from CIC Capital reports Reuters. It will use the funds for investing in other businesses with the Alibaba Group and in infrastructure like cloud computing and risk control. 450 million active users Ant Financial will also bring ‘strategic partners’ from China’s financial sector to expand its rural reach and acquire other companies. A year ago, Ant Financial had raised $2 billion, and its Alipay services accounted for 58% of all online payments in China. Alipay was spun off from Alibaba and renamed Ant Financial in 2014. Ant Financial claims to have 450 million active users and is now valued at $60 billion, up from its previous valuation of $45 billion. It has plans for an IPO in China as well as globally, however a timeline for the IPO has not been mentioned. Also read: Alibaba launches SMILE program for SMEs; Hindi version coming soon The company’s previous fundraise was led by China’s national social-security fund, with participation from China Life Insurance and state postal service China Post Group, which also increased their stakes in the current $4.5 billion round. It was split from Alibaba Group before the group’s IPO in September 2014. Both Alibaba and Ant have invested in Chinese food delivery app Ele.me, while Ant Financial has invested in Postal Savings Bank of China. Ant Financial was founded in…
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