Alibaba’s fintech affiliate Ant Financial has injected funds in Clover Sec, a government-enterprise level cyberspace security company headquartered in Xi’an, the capital of Northwest China’s Shaanxi province, as reported by tech news portal Lieyunwang on Thursday.
The amount invested is likely around a “hundred million in RMB” (which amounts to USD 14.9 million), according to Lieyunwang, which did not share further financial details.
Clover Sec has not yet made this new investment public. It did announce an RMB 67 million (USD 10 million) pre-Series A funding round in December 2017.
Ant Financial declined to comment when contacted by KrAsia.
Clover Sec’s tech aims to figure out and solve security problems before hackers find loopholes. The firm has security solutions for industries including banking, energy and the internet.
It’s already been offering web and app security evaluations via Ant Financial’s Securities Service Platform, which has 1,626 clients. In addition, it is also a partner in security-related businesses of Tencent, Clover Sec’s website shows.
The cybersecurity market worldwide is expected to grow from USD 152.71 billion in 2018 to USD 248.26 billion by 2023, at a compound annual growth rate of 10.2%, driven by strict data protection directives and rising cyber terrorism, said research firm MarketsandMarkets.
“The cybersecurity market is growing rapidly because of the rising need for cloud-based cybersecurity solutions among Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs),” it added.
China’s business-facing cyberspace sector has also been gaining more attention from investors.
360 Security Technology founder Zhou Hongyi announced earlier this week that his company will try to invest in more than 100 cybersecurity startups and bring 10 of them to the capital market.
Contact the writer at jingli@kr-asia.com
