Alibaba’s Finance Arm Tours Silicon Valley as It Preps for IPO

A team of executives from Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.’s banking and payments arm recently visited Silicon Valley to size up potential investments and lay the groundwork for an initial public offering expected as soon as next year.

Ant Financial is a behemoth in China, where it serves more than 450 million customers and provides services from wealth management and insurance to credit checks and consumer loans. The company has ambitions of becoming a global powerhouse. But Ant remains a curiosity in much of the world and will have to work hard to persuade foreigners to give their financial information and money to a Chinese entity.