Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba’s affiliate Ant Financial Services Group announced it has completed a huge new fundraising round, which can be used for expanding access to financial services in China's rural areas and improving the company's globalization.

Paypal’s bigger rival received $4.5 billion from investors, which means raising funds at a $60-billion valuation. Chinese business magnate and philanthropist Jack Ma and Alibaba will prepare to bring Ant public on the Shanghai exchange in 2017. The Initial Public Offering (IPO) is expected to be the biggest in China since Agricultural Bank of China sold $22.1 billion worth of stock in its 2010 offering.

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Alibaba's ability to raise such a whopping funding round for Ant shows credibility to the popular notion that while private tech companies are struggling in the United States, they are hugely developing overseas. Ant Financial said that it aims to expand its footprint overseas to offer the same access to financial services globally.

This round is the largest investment in a tech company to date, surpassing the $3 billion that Didi Kuaidi, China’s homegrown rival to Uber, brought in from investors last summer by some margin.

Alipay remains Ant's biggest asset, but the company has quickly added more offerings, including a credit rating service, an internet bank that lends money to small businesses, and even a money market fund.

Existing Ant Financial shareholders including insurance firm China Life, China Post Group, and China Development Bank Capital jumped on the latest funding round. Other investors include groups led by China Investment Corp. Capital, and CCB Trust, a subsidiary of one of China's largest banks.

TagsAnt Financial, Alipay, Alibaba, Jack Ma, PayPal, Ant Financial $60 Billion, china