The funding round, led by its parent company’s, will see Ant International focus on global expansion and product development, with a focus on AI.
Ant International has raised $1.2bn in a funding round which will be used to accelerate its global expansion and develop its core four payment pillars.
The Series A funding round saw investment from prior investors, Ant Group and Alibaba Group, as well as other unconfirmed international investment institutions.
Ant International, the global payments business arm of Ant Group, stated in a release it will use the fresh capital to progress its global expansion which it has embarked on since its start in 2024.
In Europe, Ant International provided its digital wallet partners across merchants in the UK, France and Germany. In Latin America, it integrated Alipay+ for cross-border payments in Argentina and Chile.
The company is focusing on using the capital from the funding round to also offer inclusive financial services for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) across each of the jurisdictions it is active in.
The funding round was expected to raise up to $10bn according to reports from Reuters in June, primarily coming from existing investors General Atlantic and Silverlake.
Ant International was also reportedly mulling a potential initial public offering (IPO) in Hong Kong this year, but President Douglas Feagin told CNBC in March 2025 the company will only go public “when the time is right”.
Ant International’s core four pillars
Ant International was the answer to Ant Group’s issue of scaling their digital wallet and e-wallet partners for not just travelling Chinese customers, but for all customers globally.
The creation of Ant International also helped streamline its parent company’s payment services under one roof, comprised of Alipay+, Antom, WorldFirst, and Bettr; the core four pillars of Ant International.
Alipay+ is the all-in-one digital payment platform that encompasses up to 50 localised digital wallets. This allows users to make cross-border payments using their preferred digital wallet whilst travelling and staying in different countries.
Antom is the company’s merchant acquiring and payment processing platform. It lets businesses process digital payments through a single API, connecting them to global payment networks with lower currency exchange costs and improved authorisation rates.
WorldFirst handles multi-currency business and consumer accounts, whilst facilitating foreign exchange and cross-border payments. The platform supports up to 130 currencies and allows users to make same-day payments.
Bettr is a AI-native platform that supports embedded finance and credit for SMEs in emerging markets, offering inclusive credit access for underserved markets to provide capital for businesses.
This year, Ant International has placed a strategic focus on developing AI-based products and services. It partnered with Google at the start of the year to provide its payment services for the tech company’s Universal Commerce Protocol for agentic commerce payments.
In April, Ant International launched its agentic mobile protocol to develop the support for mobile payments using AI chatbots, partnering with Stripe and Google in the process.
