螞蟻金服大舉融資，估值已超高盛

幾個月前，有報道稱螞蟻金服打算通過私募融資90億美元?，F在這筆錢不僅已經到位，而且本次C輪融資的總額達到了驚人的140億美元。

本輪融資讓螞蟻金服的價值達到1500億美元，從而成為世界上價值最高的私營科技公司； Uber位居第二，價值約為700億美元。同時，作為阿里巴巴的支付業務附屬，螞蟻金服的價值甚至超過了老牌金融公司美國運通（American Express，市值870億美元）、高盛集團（Goldman Sachs，880億美元）和摩根士丹利（Morgan Stanley，920億美元）。

管理支付寶平臺的螞蟻金服已經有14年歷史，以往是阿里巴巴的一部分?，F在螞蟻金服自己有可能要首發上市了。本次C輪融資分兩部分——其中之一約30億美元，以人民幣計價，來自現有投資者；其余用美元計價，引進的新投資者包括華平投資集團（Warburg Pincus）、銀湖資本（Silver Lake）、淡馬錫（Temasek）以及加拿大養老金計劃投資委員會（Canada Pension Plan Investment Board）。

這筆資金將用于全球擴張和進一步投資于螞蟻金服的技術，比如區塊鏈、物聯網和人工智能等。支付寶不光提供便利的線上和線下支付，它的業務已經擴張到了貸款等其他金融服務領域。在中國國內，支付寶最大的對手是騰訊的微信。

螞蟻金服首席執行官兼執行董事長井賢棟表示：“我們致力于和國內外所有伙伴建立一個開放的生態系統。我們將繼續投資于技術和創新，以便滿足大家尚未解決的需求，并確保大家受益于數字經濟的發展?！?

螞蟻金服表示，在截至今年3月的財年中，該公司技術的用戶規模約為8.7億人。這個數字基本上源于支付寶的用戶數量，以及其他國家和地區基于螞蟻金服平臺的支付服務用戶，主要是南亞和東南亞。

《金融時報》報道，螞蟻金服今年的凈利潤預計為23.3億美元。（財富中文網）

譯者：Charlie

審校：夏林

A couple months ago, it was reported that China’s Ant Financial was looking to raise $9 billion in a private funding round. Well, the money’s in now, and the total for this Series C round is a whopping $14 billion.

The round gives the Jack Ma-controlled company a valuation of $150 billion, which doesn’t just make it the most valuable privately-held tech firm in the world—the second-most-valuable, Uber, is worth around $70 billion—it even makes the Alibaba payment affiliate more valuable than financial veterans American Express (which has a market cap of $87 billion), Goldman Sachs ($88 billion), and Morgan Stanley ($92 billion.)

The 14-year-old Ant administers the Alipay platform and used to be part of Jack Ma’s Alibaba—now it’s likely to have its own IPO. It raised the Series C cash in two tranches: around $3 billion denominated in renminbi, taking in existing investors, and the rest denominated in U.S. dollars, with new investors including the likes of Warburg Pincus, Silver Lake, Temasek and Canada Pension Plan Investment Board.

The money will be used for international expansion, and for further investment in Ant’s technology—think blockchain, Internet of things, artificial intelligence and so on. Alipay doesn’t just offer easy payments online and in person; it has also branched out into other financial services such as loans. It’s biggest rival back home is Tencent’s WeChat.

“We are dedicated to building an open ecosystem with all our partners in China and beyond,” said CEO and executive chairman Eric Jing. “We will continue to invest in technology and innovation in order to serve unmet financial needs of people everywhere and to enable them to benefit from the development of the digital economy.”

Ant Financial’s technology was used by around 870 million people in the year up to the end of March, the company said. That figure is largely derived from those who use Alipay, with the rest coming from payment services in other countries that also rely on Ant Financial’s platform, mostly across South and East Asia.

According to the Financial Times, Ant is expected to make a net profit of $2.33 billion this year.