Ant Group, formerly known as Ant Financial, is a digital finance tech company affiliated with Alibaba Group. Ant was initially founded as Alipay in 2004, an online payment platform with escrow functionalities. The company was spun off from Alibaba in 2011 and expanded to become a comprehensive platform for consumers to access digital finance services, with a particular focus on providing ease of access to credit as well as a wide range of customized investment and insurance products. Alibaba currently has a 33% equity stake in Ant.