<article>Billionaire Jack Ma’s Ant Financial is raising its fundraising target to more than $12 billion by bringing in existing Chinese shareholders in a yuan-denominated financing round, people familiar with the matter said.</article>

Billionaire Jack Ma’s Ant Financial is raising its fundraising target to more than $12 billion by bringing in existing Chinese shareholders in a yuan-denominated financing round, people familiar with the matter said.
The online financial services giant is shooting for at least $2 billion of additional funding in a yuan round that allows Chinese investors to participate, the people said, requesting not to be named because the matter is private. That financing will come on top of a recent $10 billion round that valued Ant Financial at $150 billion and targeted overseas investors such as Warburg Pincus and Temasek Holdings Pte, the people said. Existing backers of Ant including sovereign wealth fund China Investment Corp. are considering taking part in the yuan financing, they added.
The original $10 billion funding, which Bloomberg News reported earlier, has attracted investors including Carlyle Group and the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board. A $150 billion valuation would make Ant the world’s largest fintech firm and equip it with enormous resources for expansion. The company is already China’s biggest online payments service through Alipay and controls the world’s largest money market fund as it moves deeper into areas from consumer lending to credit scoring.
Ant, which was spun off from Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. in 2011, is formally known as Zhejiang Ant Small &amp; Micro Financial Services Group. It posted a 65 percent jump in pretax profit, rising to 9.18 billion yuan ($1.4 billion) in the fiscal year ended March, according to Bloomberg calculations based on company filings.
Ant Financial declined to comment. CIC didn’t immediately respond to an email seeking comment.
Bloomberg

The online financial services giant is shooting for at least $2 billion of additional funding in a yuan round that allows Chinese investors to participate.

Ant Financial said to raise fundraising target to over $12b

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Ant Financial said to raise fundraising target to over $12b

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