The financial affiliate of Chinese ecommerce group Alibaba has raised $4.5bn from mostly state-backed investors, in what it said was the largest private placement by an internet company globally.

中国电商集团阿里巴巴(Alibaba)旗下金融公司蚂蚁金服(Ant Financial)募得45亿美元，投资者大多为国有背景。该公司表示，这是全球互联网企业获得的最大一笔私募融资。

Investors in the Series B financing round include a unit of China Investment Corp (CIC), the country’s sovereign wealth fund, and a subsidiary of China Construction Bank, the country’s second-largest lender by assets, according to a statement by Ant Financial on Friday.

上周五蚂蚁金服发布声明表示，此次B轮融资的投资者包括中国主权财富基金中国投资公司(China Investment Corp)的一家子公司，以及中国以资产计第二大银行中国建设银行(China Construction Bank)旗下一家子公司。

The latest fundraising values Ant Financial at $60bn, according to China Business News, a respected daily newspaper that is part-owned by Alibaba. The valuation places Ant Financial among the world’s most valuable private technology companies, alongside smartphone maker Xiaomi and US car-hailing app Uber. A previous funding round in June 2015 valued the company at $45bn-$50bn.

据《第一财经日报》(China Business News)报道，蚂蚁金服在此轮融资中估值600亿美元。《第一财经日报》是一家受尊敬的日报，阿里巴巴持有其部分股权。这一估值让蚂蚁金服跻身全球最有价值的非上市科技企业之列，与智能手机厂商小米(Xiaomi)和美国打车应用优步(Uber)比肩。在2015年6月的A轮融资中，蚂蚁金服估值在450亿至500亿美元之间。

Ant Financial Services Group includes Alipay, China’s leading online and mobile payments service; MYbank, an online-only lender established last June targeting consumers and small businesses; Sesame Credit, an experimental credit rating service that draws on Alibaba’s trove of user data; and Tianhong Asset Management, the fund company that manages Yu’e Bao, the money-market mutual fund linked to Alipay.

蚂蚁金服旗下品牌包括：支付宝(Alipay)，中国居于领先地位的在线及移动支付服务；网商银行(Mybank)，去年6月成立的面向消费者和小型企业的网上贷款机构；芝麻信用(Sesame Credit)，利用阿里巴巴用户数据库进行实验性信用评级的服务；以及天弘基金管理有限公司(Tianhong Asset Management)，管理余额宝(Yu’e Bao)的基金公司，余额宝为与支付宝相连的货币市场基金。

In addition to new investors CIC and CCB, the latest fundraising includes additional investment by existing Ant Financial shareholders including the parent company of Postal Savings Bank of China; the private equity arm of China Development Bank; and Primavera Capital Group, the private equity fund run by Fred Hu, former Goldman Sachs chairman for greater China, according to the statement.

蚂蚁金服在声明中表示，除了新加入的投资者中投公司和中国建设银行以外，此轮融资还包括蚂蚁金服现有股东的追加投资，其中包括：中国邮政储蓄银行(Postal Savings Bank of China)的母公司；国家开发银行(China Development Bank)旗下私募股权公司；以及前高盛(Goldman Sachs)大中华区主席胡祖六(Fred Hu)运营的私募基金、中国春华资本集团(Primavera Capital Group)。

“The capital raised . . . will allow us to invest in the infrastructure, such as cloud computing and risk control, that will underpin our long-term growth in rural and international markets,” said Eric Jing, Ant Financial’s president.

“所筹资金……将让我们能投资基础设施，比如云计算和风险控制，这将支撑我们在农村和国际市场的长期增长，”蚂蚁金服总裁井贤栋表示。

Ant Financial has previously said it intended to conduct an initial public offering on the mainland but has not offered a timeline.

蚂蚁金服此前表示，打算在内地进行首次公开发行(IPO)，但是并未给出具体的时间表。

The company said its active user base surpassed 450m in 2015, including 140m rural users. China’s central bank recently launched a crackdown on fraud and risk in online finance, a campaign that analysts said was likely to benefit established players with strong compliance and risk management capabilities.

该公司表示，2015年其活跃用户基础超过4.5亿，其中包括1.4亿农村用户。中国央行最近对在线金融中的欺诈和风险开展打击行动，分析师称这可能有利于严格遵守法规且拥有风险管理能力的已确立市场地位的公司。

But its domestic Alipay business based on collecting transaction fees from merchants and individual users remains the company’s dominant revenue source, analysts say. China is largely forgoing widespread adoption of debit and credit cards, proceeding directly to digital payments: iResearch forecasts that online payments for 2016 will grow 33 per cent year-on-year, following 46 per cent annual growth in 2015.

但是，分析师称，蚂蚁金服基于向商家和个人用户收取交易手续费的国内支付宝业务，仍然是其主要收入源。中国在很大程度上正在放弃广泛使用的借记卡和信用卡，直接迈向电子支付：艾瑞咨询集团(iResearch)预计，2016年中国在线支付总额将同比增长33%，2015年同比增长为46%。

Alipay’s market share in internet payments was 48 per cent last year, ahead of the 20 per cent share for Caifutong, the payment service run by online gaming and social media group Tencent Holdings, according to iResearch.

艾瑞咨询表示，去年，支付宝在互联网支付方面的市场份额为48%，领先于占据20%市场份额的财付通。财付通是网络游戏和社交媒体集团腾讯控股(Tencent Holdings)旗下的支付服务。