China’s most valuable fintech company is raising again. Yesterday, the WSJ reported that Alibaba subsidiary Ant Financial is raising up to $3.1B in new funding at a valuation of more than $50B, ahead of a much-speculated IPO. Ant Financial closed its Series A last summer from “major Chinese insurance corporations,” China’s largest pension fund, and others. “Innovation is not cyclical.” While financial markets, economies and investor psychology are cyclical, innovation is not, Michael Eisenberg of Aleph reminds us. Constraints actually increase innovation, which means that some of the best companies are born during the downturns – Uber, for instance, was founded in 2009, and Airbnb in 2008. What’s really happening in the venture market? Tomasz Tunguz of Redpoint digs into investment data to find that total venture funding in February is half of what it was in 2015. The takeaway: February seems to have been “a bit of a wait-and-see month,” as Tunguz says. The data indicates that Series B will likely be the most challenging round to raise this year. Introducing new ways to access CrunchBase Data: Uncover new opportunities, discover industry trends, and build powerful apps using the Daily Excel Export or API. | 