The payment subsidiary gains 14 Billion USD in Series C funding
The payment subsidiary Ant Financial, an affiliate of Chinese multinational e-commerce site Alibaba, raised 14 Billion USD in a Series C round funding which will help the firm advance in blockchain and other related technologies.
Ant Financial rebranded in 2014 was first introduced a decade earlier to the world as AliPay in 2004. The subsidiary provides financial services to those who are underbanked. On 8th June 2018, the firm announced new equity financing which will provide a way to improve the technical capabilities of the firm in AI and IOT, in parallel with blockchain technology.
There is no full potential plan rolled out yet by Ant Financial for the development related to blockchain technology. However, the decision is understandable given the number of active users for AliPay as the leading Chinese payment provider, was over 800 million in 2017.
The news comes right after the company’s decision to move to technology services.
Ant Financial blockchain-related development
As reported by Reuters on 5th June 2018, China is in the process of cracking down on identified risk factors in financial services. Ant Financial is moving the focus of business goals from financial services to development with blockchain technology. However, blockchain is only one main focus apart from the Internet of Things and Artificial Intelligence. The company has a positive outlook on new trends and has true potential with the necessary funding in its hands.
Alibaba and Ant Financial are already doing development with blockchain technology. Ant Financial expanded the assistance of blockchain-based charity donations platform. Meanwhile, Alibaba has initiated a new pilot project to carry out a Food Trust Framework on the blockchain. This service plans to keep track of international shipments throughout the delivery process.
In March 2018, the CEO of Ant Financial, Eric Jing stated that the company has discarded the chances of holding an initial coin offering (ICO). However, it will carry out development related to blockchain technology while giving priority to cross-blockchain compatibility.
