Ant Financial launches $160m internet finance fund
Ant Financial Service Group, Alibaba Group’s online financials services affiliate, has launched a RMB1 billion ($160 million) fund to invest in internet and finance companies.
The vehicle, known as Ant Ecosystem Co-win Fund, will support Chinese start-ups including those operating in theh online-to-offline (O2O) space. The initial fund size is RMB200 million, the company said in its official Weibo microblog.
Alipay Wallet, an online third-party payment platform operated by Ant Financial, currently has over 270 million active Chinese users. Ant Financial expects to facilitate more mobile transactions for O2O start-ups through Alipay, Xinyi Han, vice president at Ant Financial, told a press conference.
Separately, Ant Financial announced it is preparing to build an equity crowdfunding platform, called Ant Da Ke, to provide financing to young entrepreneurs. The platform is being set up in collaboration with venture capital firms such as IDG Capital Partners and Sequoia Capital, as well as Alibaba's reward-based Taobao Crowdfunding platform and hardware start-up incubator Maker Plus.
In March, Alibaba's rival JD.com launched theh JD Equity Crowdfunding platform, which introduced a lead-and-follow mechanism to build up investor confidence to provide funding for start-ups. Institutional VC firms and angel funds will source deals - around 10 in each batch - and lead the investment rounds. Individual investors can participate alongside them.
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