Ant Financial Holdings, the financial services unit of e-commerce giant Alibaba, has raised US$4.5 billion in what was deemed the largest private fundraising round by an internet firm.

 

The series B round of financing puts Ant Financial’s valuation at US$60 billion, the company said in a statement.

 

Ant Financial operates Alipay, the biggest online payment platform in China by transaction volume. In early July 2015, Ant Financial completed its series A round of financing with a valuation at over US$45 billion.

 

Alipay is China’s largest payment platform with customers exceeding 400 million as of June last year.

 

In this round of private financing, Ant Financial brought in new investors including the sovereign-wealth fund China Investment Corp’s CIC Capital and a subsidiary of state-owned China Construction Bank Corp.

 

The company will use proceeds from the financing to acquire domestic IT infrastructure as well as rural financial services.

 

Going forward, Ant Financial plans to list in Shanghai and overseas, said company vice-president Cyril Han.