Ant Financial, a subsidiary of Chinese giant Alibaba, announced the closing of a funding round, which could be one of the largest in history. Investment series brought the company about $14 billion, and part of these funds will be focused on the development of blockchain technology.

According to the official statement, the company managed to reach a “final agreement” with their investors. Funds came from both local and foreign investors according to the Wall Street Journal, $11 billion was collected in USD and $3 billion in Chinese yuan. For round time the minimum investment was $200, while the maximum is $500 million.

“The company will continue to invest in the development of its blockchain, AI (eng. Artificial Intelligence — artificial intelligence), security, IoT, and computing power to improve its global technological platform for the next generation,” — said in a statement.

It should be noted, Ant Financial, the market capitalization is now estimated at no less than $150 billion, have held three rounds of funding over three years, and the company managed to attract such major players as the Carlyle Group, Discovery Capital Management, Silver Lake, Primavera Capital and General Atlantic. In the current round of Ant Financial expertise was provided to J. P. Morgan, Morgan Stanley, Deutsche Bank and other prominent financial institutions.

Investors that invested in a subsidiary of Alibaba, has been forced to agree to a number of conditions, including the requirement not to raise the rate and not invest in competing companies, such as Tencent Holdings and JD.com Inc. Perhaps more than usual when conditions dictate investors, however, the company can afford it: reportedly, many have been denied because of existing ties with Tencent or simply too small size of the proposed investment.

Note, Ant Financial, prior to rebranding in 2014, known as Alipay is China’s largest network of mobile and online payment management payment service Alipay and purchased last year, MoneyGram International. The company focuses on using technological advances to better serve its customers by developing technologies in the field of artificial intelligence, the Internet of things (IoT), as well as solutions that can improve the security level.

Ant Financial, serving each year more than 850 million active users worldwide and more than 15 million companies in China, plans to soon enter the market in several Asian countries, including Malaysia, the Philippines, India, South Korea, Indonesia, Thailand, Hong Kong, Bangladesh and Pakistan.

According to experts, if a subsidiary of Alibaba becomes a public company, it has the prospects even more impressive than the most legendary of American financial companies such as Goldman Sachs and PayPal. According to some, in the near future stock Ant Financial may be listed on both local and foreign stock exchanges.

Recall that the company purposely stays away from cryptocurrency market, preferring to deal only with the technology behind it.

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