Ratan Tata's RNT Capital To Invest $150 Mn in Alibaba's Ant Financial

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.

Ratan Tata's RNT Capital To Invest $150 Mn in Alibaba's Ant Financial

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.

Mswipe Raises Series D Funding of $31M from UC-RNT Fund and Existing Investors

Mswipe Technologies Private Limited, India's largest independent POS merchant acquirer and network provider, today announced Series D funding of $31 million. UC-RNT fund, a joint venture between Ratan Tata’s RNT Associates and the University of California along with existing investors Matrix Partners India, Falcon Edge Capital, and DSG Consumer Partners participated in the round. The company will use the funds to develop the largest network of merchants accepting digital payments in the country.

Mswipe currently has a payment network of 2,46,000 terminals spread across 550+ cities. As much as 80% of Mswipe’s customer base comprises of SME merchants, typically supported by 1-30 employees. The turnover of these outlets is in the range of Rs 1 to 5 lakhs a month, and most these merchants have can accept credit and debit card payments for the first time through Mswipe. The annualized value of total transactions enabled by Mswipe across its network stands at Rs. 9,560 crores. Last year alone, the transaction value on the Mswipe network grew 4 times while the number of installations grew 3 times. The company recently acquired PayU’s offline POS division, partnered with Samsung Pay, Sodexo and launched BharatQR and UPI acceptance for Mswipe’s merchants showcasing their ability as an open platform capable of accepting all digital payments.

Manish Patel, founder and CEO, Mswipe said, “With merchants of all sizes actively looking to enable digital payment acceptance at their establishments, we expect to grow exponentially going ahead, create card and electronic payment acceptance infrastructure across cities and widen our user base.”

Vikram Vaidyanathan, Managing Director, Matrix India said, “Mswipe is the ‘universal acceptance’ solution for all merchants enabling them to accept any payment instrument – cards, wallets, UPI, NFC etc. In a rapidly changing payments landscape, Mswipe’s open technology platform and ability to deliver solutions at the lowest cost sets them apart.  We are privileged to partner with Manish and team on their journey to create India’s largest digital acceptance network”.

Despite the numerous cashless channels today, POS terminals are still the largest and most widely used cashless instruments available in the country. The number of transactions through POS terminals stood at 233.4 million in May 2017, valued at Rs 450.8 billion, according to RBI. Compared to that, digital wallets accounted for 91.3 million transactions and total value of Rs 25.3 billion. That is a difference of almost 2.5 times in terms of number of transactions and 18 times in terms of value of transactions.

“This round of funding from UC-RNT and our existing investors is an endorsement of our vision to disrupt the merchant acquiring and electronic payment acceptance industry through technology. Merchants across the board are now looking to streamline and automate processes. At Mswipe, we are working towards developing the next generation Android based smart POS terminals that will offer merchants capabilities like GST compliant billing and inventory management with integrated and seamless payment acceptance, on the same device. Merchants can further develop customized Android applications and easily integrate Mswipe’s payment platform with such apps using these smart POS terminals. All this, while ensuring the same level of security and trust for the customers”, added Manish.