(Yicai Global) March 4 -- Chinese payments giant Ant Financial Services Group has picked up a minority stake in Sweden's Klarna, a leading global payments and shopping provider, as the pair deepen their partnership to provide more convenient financial services to consumers worldwide.

The investment will put more of Klarna's innovative solutions in front of consumers and merchants within the Alibaba ecosystem, the target said online today, without disclosing how much the Alipay operator injected or what size stake it acquired.

Klarna already runs a deferred payment solution on AliExpress, Ant's parent Alibaba Group Holding's global retail e-market, and provides its services to more than 200,000 retailers and e-commerce platforms around the world, it added.

Some of its clients include big-name brands like Samsung, Nike, Adidas, Spotify, Ikea and Expedia Group, as well as fashion retailers H&M, ASOS and Farfetch.

Editor: James Boynton