Ant Financial

Ant Financial Services Group
Native name
 蚂蚁金服
Formerly
 Alipay
Industry Technology
Financial services
Payment processor
Genre Financial
Predecessor Alipay
Founded October 16, 2014 (2014-10-16) in Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China
Headquarters Xihu District, Hangzhou, China
Area served
 Worldwide
Key people
 Eric Jing
(Executive Chair and Chief Executive Officer)
Cheng Li
(Chief Technology Officer)
Douglas Feagin
(Senior Vice President of Global Business)[1]
Products Electronic payment processing
Banking
Mobile payment
Brands Alipay
Ant Fortune
MYbank
Sesame Credit
Ant Financial Cloud
Koubei
Huabei
ZOLOZ[2]
Number of employees
 ~9000
Website www.antfinancial.com

Ant Financial Services Group (Chinese: 蚂蚁金服), formerly known as Alipay, is an affiliate company of the Chinese Alibaba Group. Ant Financial is the highest valued fintech company in the world, and the world's most valuable unicorn (start-up) company, with a valuation of US$150 billion.[3][4][5]

History

Alipay was rebranded as Ant Financial Services on 16 October 2014.[6] In 2015, Ant Financial raised $4.5 billion in a funding round with investors such as China Investment Corp (CIC), CCB Trust, China Life, China Post Group, China Development Bank Capital and Primavera Capital Group.[7] In 2015, the company was valued at about $45 billion.[8] As of 26 April 2016, Ant Financial had around 450 million annual active users, with Credit Suisse estimating that 58% of China’s online payment transactions went through Alipay.[8] In September 2016, Ant Financial bought EyeVerify Inc.[9]

By late January 2017, Ant Financial had a valuation of $60 billion.[9] On 26 January 2017, Ant Financial Services Group announced a deal to acquire MoneyGram International for $880 million. The companies decided to terminate the deal after approval was not granted from the CFIUS.[9][10]

In September 2017, Ant Financial formed a joint venture with Sir Li Ka-shing's CK Hutchison Holdings to bring a digital wallet service in Hong Kong.[11] In June 2018, the company launched a blockchain-powered cash remittance service that will allow real-time transfers of cash between individuals in Hong Kong and the Philippines.[12]

On 9 June 2018, the company raised around US$14 billion, which the Times of India called "the biggest-ever single fund-raising globally by a private company".[13][14]

Services

It operates Alipay, the world's largest mobile and online payments platform [15] as well as Yu’e Bao, the world's largest money-market fund.[16]It also runs Sesame Credit, a third-party credit rating system.[17] As of September 2017, Ant Financial unveiled its facial recognition payment technology through its Alipay services.[18]

In September 2018, the company launched the Ant Financial Technology brand for all of its technology products and services.[19]

The financial company Koubei was created as a joint venture in 2015 by Alibaba and Ant Financial Services Group.[20] Ant Financial also operates credit payment company Huabei, and the online bank called MYbank.[8][21]

In 2015 Ant Financial launched Ant Fortune, a wealth management platform. Yu’e Bao is one of the products on the platform. Ant Fortune offers hundreds products from more than 80 Chinese fund institutions.[22]

In June 2017, Ant Fortune launched a Fortune Account (财富号) service platform that allows financial institutions to publish content and sell their own financial products through the platform.[23]

Subsidiaries

  • Alipay – a mobile wallet and payments app
  • Huabei (Ant Credit Pay) - a virtual credit card type of product that facilitates credit payments
  • MYbank - a private online bank that lives entirely on the cloud
  • Jiebei (Ant Cash Now) - a consumer loan service
  • Ant Fortune - a comprehensive wealth management app
  • Ant Insurance Services
  • Zhima Credit - an independent credit filling and scoring service for individuals
  • Ant Financial Cloud - a cloud service for financial institutions
  • ZOLOZ - a global biometric-based identity verification platform

Joint Ventures

Ranking

In 2017, Ant Financial was ranked sixth in Fortune's Change the World list, recognized for the positive environmental impact of Ant Forest, the world's largest platform for tracking individuals' carbon footprints.[25] Ant Forest allows users to collect "energy points" through their actions in the real world that can be used to grow virtual and ultimately real trees, with 230 million users of Alipay activating Ant Forest accounts. Ant Financial and its partners, including environmental NGOs the SEE Foundation and China Green Foundation, have thus far planted 10.25 million trees, equivalent to a 1.22 million-ton reduction in CO2 emissions.[26]

References

  1. ↑ "Team". Ant Financial. Retrieved September 29, 2018.
  2. ↑ "Ant Financial". CrunchBase. Retrieved September 29, 2018.
  3. ↑ "China's Ant Financial reportedly raises $10 billion at $150 billion valuation". CNBC. Retrieved 2018-06-18.
  4. ↑ Wang, Yue. "Ant Financial Said To Close $150B Funding Round". Forbes. Retrieved 2018-06-18.
  5. ↑ "China's digital-payments giant keeps bank chiefs up at night". The Economist. Retrieved 2018-06-18.
  6. ↑ Shih, Gerry. "Alibaba affiliate Alipay rebranded Ant in new financial services push". Reuters. Retrieved 2018-06-19.
  7. ↑ Russell, Jon (January 27, 2017), Alibaba’s Ant Financial is buying MoneyGram for $880M to expand its global presence, TechCrunch, retrieved January 28, 2016
  8. 1 2 3 5 Things to Know About China’s Ant Financial, Wall Street Journal, 26 Apr 2016, retrieved January 28, 2016
  9. 1 2 3 Carew, Rick; Demos, Telis (January 26, 2017), China’s Ant Financial, Owned by Trump Ally Jack Ma, Makes U.S. Play, Wall Street Journal, retrieved January 27, 2017
  10. ↑ Greg Roumeliotis (January 2, 2018). "U.S. blocks MoneyGram sale to China's Ant Financial on national security concerns". Reuters.
  11. ↑ Ho, Prudence (26 September 2017). "Li Ka-shing, Jack Ma Join Forces to Bring Digital Wallet to Hong Kong". Bloomberg.com.
  12. ↑ "Ant Financial's Hong Kong venture launches blockchain-based remittance service". Reuters. June 25, 2018.
  13. ↑ "Ant raises $14 billion in largest single mop-up". Economic Times, Times of India.
  14. ↑ "Alibaba's Ant Financial fintech affiliate raises $14 billion to continue its global expansion". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2018-09-20.
  15. ↑ Heggestuen, John. "Alipay Overtakes PayPal As The Largest Mobile Payments Platform In The World". Business Insider. Retrieved 2018-06-18.
  16. ↑ Lucas, Louise. "Chinese money market fund becomes world's biggest". Financial Times. Retrieved 2018-06-18.
  17. ↑ Shu, Catherine. "Data From Alibaba's E-Commerce Sites Is Now Powering A Credit-Scoring Service". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2015-12-22.
  18. ↑ Mullen, Jethro; Wang, Serenitie. "Pay with your face at this KFC in China". CNN Tech. Retrieved 2018-06-18.
  19. ↑ "Ant Financial Group to create one brand across its financial products". The Drum. Retrieved 2018-09-20.
  20. ↑ J. de la MERCED, MICHAEL (January 24, 2017), Hoping to Strike Gold Again, Silver Lake Leads Investment in Koubei, New York: The New York Times
  21. ↑ Evelyn Cheng (June 8, 2018). "How Ant Financial grew larger than Goldman Sachs". CNBC.
  22. ↑ Yue Wang (August 18, 2015). "Alibaba Finance Affiliate Launches Fund Investment Smartphone App". Forbes.
  23. ↑ He Wei (June 15, 2017). "Ant woos 3rd-party financial shops". China Daily.
  24. ↑ Jon Russell (September 26, 2017). "Alibaba's Ant Financial partners with Hutchison to develop its Alipay service in Hong Kong". TechCrunch.
  25. ↑ "Fortune's "Change the World" list". Fortune.
  26. ↑ Wang, Yanfei. "Ant Financial ranked 6th in Fortune environmental list". www.chinadaily.com.cn. Retrieved 2018-01-18.
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