Ant Financial, formerly Alipay and a subsidiary of Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd., today announced the company has secured $14 billion in funding from investors.

The Series C investment will reportedly fund the acceleration of development for blockchain technology, artificial intelligence and Internet of Things projects.

The company intends to expand its reach into underserved and underbanked markets using these technologies to reach consumers and small enterprises globally. The vision of the company is to give underserved markets a way to join financial networks with inclusive technology.

“We are dedicated to building an open ecosystem with all our partners in China and beyond,” Eric Jing, executive chairman and chief executive of Ant Financial, said in a statement. “We will continue to invest in technology and innovation in order to serve unmet financial needs of people everywhere and to enable them to benefit from the development of the digital economy.”

Ant Financial and Alibaba have long been researching and developing blockchain-related products. In 2017, Jian Wang, chairman of the Alibaba Group Technology Steering Committee, told SiliconANGLE the company had a deep interest in blockchain technology. During the same year, Ant Financial began developing smart contracts and financial blockchain technology for home rentals.

“I like the blockchain idea very much, and eventually it will be part of the internet,” Wang said. “It’s not going to just sit on top of the internet; it’s going to be very fundamental, just like [the internet protocol] TCP/IP.”

More recently, Jing himself told an audience at China’s annual Development High-Level Forum that he believes blockchain is “the cornerstone of trust for the digital society in the future.”

It’s also reported that Ant Financial currently holds the most blockchain patents out of any company in the world, according to IPR Daily’s blockchain patent list. At 49 patents, Ant Financial barely beats out Bank of America, which claims to hold 48 blockchain patents – although IPR lists the bank with only 44.

Alibaba partnered with parcel shipment company Australia Post in early 2017 to combat the fake food crisis in China using blockchain technology. A year earlier, Ant Financial introduced a blockchain that would improve accountability for Chinese charities by providing registration and transaction transparency for the industry.

This news comes shortly after a report published by Reuters that cited inside sources commenting about the company’s shift from financial services to technology services. Ant Financial is also said to be preparing for an initial public offering, expected to happen in 2019, and this additional investment places the company’s valuation near $150 billion.

This investment includes a portion raised domestically by existing Chinese shareholders as well as an international portion from the United States and abroad.

Participants in the international funds include GIC, Khazanah Nasional Berhad, Warburg Pincus, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, Silver Lake, Temasek, General Atlantic, funds and accounts advised by T. Rowe Price Associates Inc., The Carlyle Group, Janchor Partners, Discovery Capital Management, Baillie Gifford and Primavera Capital.

Image: Ant Financial