Jack Ma prepares Ant Financial for landmark IPO

Jack Ma’s Ant Financial Services Group is set for a $9 billion-dollar fundraiser, the Wall Street Journal reports, ahead of a highly-anticipated IPO later this year.

Hangzhou-based Ant, an affiliate of Alibaba and owner of mobile payment platform Alipay, could be valued at up to $150 billion in this latest round of fundraising, making it the world’s largest unicorn (private companies with a market valuation of more than $1 billion).

Should Ant list with a valuation of over $100 billion, it would likely be out-value U.S. payment service rivals such as Paypal, or even titan financial firms BlackRock or Goldman Sachs.