Carlyle may back Jack Ma's Ant Financial in $10 billion round

Ant Financial, the Chinese payments giant controlled by Jack Ma, is expected to close a fundraising of at least $10 billion in the next few days, attracting Carlyle Group and the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board as first-time investors, according to people familiar with the matter.

The Hangzhou-based company is said to be valued at about $150 billion in this round, the people said, requesting not to be named because the matter is private. The funding will be mostly used for overseas expansion, the people said.

The $10-billion funding makes Ant the world’s largest fintech firm and equips it with enormous resources for expansion. The company is already China’s biggest e-payments service and controls the world’s largest money market fund as it moves deeper into areas from consumer lending to credit scoring.

Ant Financial posted a 65% jump in pretax profit, rising to $1.4 billion in the fiscal year ended in March, according to calculations based on company filings.