BANGKOK (BLOOMBERG) Ant Financial's latest round of funding, reported to involve Singapore's Temasek Holdings, is said to value the Chinese provider of mobile payments at about US$150 billion (S$196.3 billion) - 50 per cent more than Goldman Sachs Group Inc's market capitalization.

That would not only make Zhejiang Ant Small & Micro Financial Services Group the world's most-valuable startup, it would jump the payments business founded by Alibaba Group Holding Ltd chairman Jack Ma into the top 15 among banks, insurers and credit providers by market value.

Ant Financial is seeking to raise at least US$10 billion in a funding round, according to reports by Bloomberg, citing people familiar with the matter. At a US$150 billion valuation, the operator of Alipay and a money-market fund would rank 14th among financial-service firms.