Alibaba Financial Affiliate Raises $4.5 Billion
ByPang Yu, a railway ticket inspector, shows Ant Check, part of Ant Financial, on her phone. Ant Financial is Alibaba’s online payment affiliate. CreditReuters
The Alibaba Group of China has become a colossus in the global Internet world, with a market value of nearly $200 billion.
Now its online payment affiliate is aiming for a similarly lofty financial goal: becoming one of the most valuable privately held technology companies in the world.
The affiliate, known as the Ant Financial Services Group, said on Tuesday that it had raised $4.5 billion from investors. The private financing round suggests that the company is now valued at about $60 billion — or more than $10 billion over the market value of PayPal Holdings, its closest analogue…