Ratan Tata-founded RNT Capital Advisors will invest about $150 million in the mega financing round of Ant Financial Services, an affiliate company of the Chinese Alibaba Group and also the world’s most highly valued private technology company, said a report by Economics Times, citing two people privy to the development.

Notably, according an another report by Bloomberg, Ant Financial has reportedly raised about $14 billion in its latest funding round backed by Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund GIC Pte., Warburg Pincus, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, Silver Lake and Temasek Holdings Pte.

It is too be noted that as of now it is not clear that whether the investment to be made by RNT Capital, is part of this tranche of funding raised by Ant financial, or will be part of next tranche of same funding round or another round.

According to the Economic Times report, the investment by RNT Capital will be part of a $10-12 billion funding round that is expected to value Ant Financial at $150 billion, outrunning the ride-hailing giant Uber, which is valued at $70 billion. For its investment, RNT Capital will get about a 0.1% stake in Ant Financial.

The proposed investment in Ant Financial will be the first known investment outside India for the RNT Capital. According to a Bloomberg report, Alipay, the digital payment product from Ant Financial, clocks up $2.4 trillion worth of mobile payments every three months and has 870 million customers.

Launched in 2016, RNT Capital is a global investment platform backed by Mr. Ratan Tata with close partnership with the office of the Chief Investment Officer of the Regents, University of California, and thus called as UC-RNT FUnd. The fund invests in disruptive, technology-oriented businesses across the world and takes a long-term, founder-centric approach to investing, often relying on its propriety sourcing advantage. It partners closely with the office of the Chief Investment Officer of the Regents, University of California.

RNT Capital (UC-RNT Fund) has earlier backed companies like ride-hailing app Ola in a $100-million round. Other investments include mobile point-of-sales solutions company Mswipe and healthcare startup Curefit -- both in 2017.

In January this year, RNT Capital invested $7.4 million in Bangalore-based Medtech startup Axio Biosolutions.

For Ratan Tata, Ant Financial will be the second Chinese technology company he will be investing in. In 2015, he had made a personal investment through RNT Associates in smartphone maker Xiaomi.

To recall, Ratan Tata had recently announced his ₹900 million plan to fund in such Indian startups in which no other investors like to invest. The funding will be made through his Tata Trust’s FISE or the Foundation for Innovation and Social Entrepreneurship, a social impact fund as well as a business incubator.
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