Chinese fintech giant Ant Group spins off database firm OceanBase, giving Alibaba affiliates a stake

A shareholder restructuring for OceanBase, which develops the database tech behind Alipay, gives 35 companies a stake, paving the way to a possible public listing

Reading Time:2 minutes

Why you can trust SCMP

Fintech giant Ant Group is spinning off the subsidiary responsible for the database behind Alipay. Photo: Bloomberg

Ann Caoin Shanghai

Published: 7:00am, 3 Jul 2024Updated: 11:12pm, 3 Jul 2024

Corrected [10:59pm, 3 Jul, 2024]

[10:59pm, 3 Jul, 2024]
A previous version of this story identified Alibaba as an OceanBase shareholder in a new funding round based on incorrect information on a business registry platform. The 35 new shareholders took part in a share swap arrangement and Alibaba was not directly involved.

Two Alibaba Group Holding affiliates have become new shareholders of OceanBase, the database company founded by the e-commerce giant’s fintech affiliate Ant Group, as the start-up overhauled its shareholding structure and spun off into a separate entity.

Hangzhou Junhan and Hangzhou Junao are among 35 companies who became OceanBase shareholders last Saturday after Ant transferred its shares in a share swap arrangement. A number of big names in Chinese venture capital also took part, including China Capital Investment Group, HongShan and Yunfeng Capital, according to Chinese business registry information platform Tianyancha.

Alibaba owns the South China Morning Post.

The change in shareholders means OceanBase is no longer a wholly owned subsidiary under Ant, which started the database operation in 2010. It is an important step in lining up any potential public listing for the start-up.

Ant had already announced in March that it intended to make OceanBase one of three independent business units with their own boards of directors. The other two companies are Ant International and Ant Digital Technologies. The separation was expected to spur growth and innovation.

The companies will each roll out their own employee share option programmes, which will be “more compatible with their start-up status”, Ant said in an internal letter at the time.