Author:@Liu Jing, elsewhere
Information about DeepSeek's financing is already everywhere.
Known information will not be repeated by "elsewhere." Below are some untold stories or details we have learned about.
The Legendary Four-Hour Meeting
First, let's talk about that investor meeting, the one whispered about as the "four-hour meeting."
In mid-May, DeepSeek organized this online meeting using the Tencent Meeting system. At that time, the investors were largely finalized, with each institution having two spots to attend.
Liang Wenfeng spoke first, followed by a Q&A session where he addressed investors' questions.
Legend has it that one CVC investor spent ten minutes just asking questions: first a lengthy self-introduction, then three lengthy questions. The atmosphere became awkward for a moment—a scene easy to imagine. Some people whispered among themselves, asking who this person was.
But Liang was unfazed and answered each question seriously. Although after answering the second question, he momentarily forgot the third one and had the investor repeat it.
Prior to this, most of these investors who eventually got in had never met Liang Wenfeng offline, so this was essentially their first real interaction with him. After the meeting, many were left with a lingering impression, a feeling that the essence of the discussion remained with them.
Liang Wenfeng's memorable quotes and spirit began circulating in the market.
Restraint and AGI
Liang Wenfeng is not an exceptionally articulate speaker, and his pace of speech isn't fast, but several quotes from that meeting are often mentioned (paraphrased, the exact wording may vary slightly)—
"We have no fame or influence; we are a group of very ordinary people."
"The narrative I like is that a group of ordinary people accomplished something extraordinary. For DeepSeek, our core is to ensure team stability—this is more important than money or resources. This is the biggest risk and also the greatest challenge."
"Assuming AGI will account for 20% of GDP, those who want 5% of it will lose to those who want 1%; those who want 1% will lose to those who want 0.1%."
"We will focus on things related to enhancing intelligence; we won't do anything else."
"AGI is a significant enough goal; everything else is just a process."
Throughout the four hours, the themes Liang Wenfeng repeatedly emphasized were consistent: focusing solely on AGI; 'less is more'; restraint, and so on.
From 5 Billion to 1.5 Billion
Formal fundraising began around April this year. There was reportedly a so-called "fund white list" consisting of institutions with strong investment capabilities and good reputations.
Initially, DeepSeek required a minimum ticket size of 5 billion RMB, no syndication of shares, and a pure RMB structure.
Against this backdrop, a prominent investor who was initially rumored to definitely participate but ultimately didn't, is widely believed in the industry to have been excluded because they had reportedly marketed shares to Middle Eastern LPs.
However, in China, there are very few market-oriented funds capable of a single investment of 3 billion RMB. Therefore, some VCs repeatedly negotiated whether it could be split among multiple fund entities.
So, looking at the result, the minimum ticket size for a fund was lowered to 1.5 billion RMB, and the fund-raising method became more flexible.
There was also a rumor that participating institutions should preferably not have invested in other large language models. This was probably unrealistic for a simple reason—finding a top-tier fund that hasn't invested in large models is contradictory.
During the investor meeting, Liang Wenfeng also expressed that DeepSeek is willing to help other companies—even including other LLM companies. Of course, the premise remains that they don't poach his people.
Monolith
Monolith Capital appeared early on the investor list. The change was that initially it was 1.5 billion, but it ended up being 3 billion.
The change in numbers is said to be related to the adjustment in Guozhitou's allocation, freeing up some shares—the latter's figure of 980 million RMB suggests it was kept below the 1 billion integer.
Regardless, being willing to place big bets is indeed Cao Xi's distinctive style. He has proven it once with Kimi.
Monolith is probably the youngest VC among the participating institutions in this round.
Zhengxingu
Zhengxingu might be the most surprising presence in the final list.
Many interpret it as Zhengxingu having not invested in any Chinese LLM company during this wave, thus being more eager to get on board. However, according to our knowledge, they did invest in Kimi, likely between $6 billion and $10 billion valuation. But compared to their fund size, the investment amount is relatively limited.
One market interpretation is that the founder of Zhengxingu comes from a secondary market background and seems to have more connections with quantitative funds like Huafang. But in reality, in the secondary market, quantitative investing and fundamental investing are two distinct circles, even with different values.
According to our understanding, this investment happened not only because of Lin Lijun and his partnerYe Chunyan, but also due to the efforts of a newly joined investor.
Zhengxingu was also one of the earliest VCs to start communicating with DeepSeek.
Will DeepSeek Be Sequoia and Hillhouse's Biggest Miss?
Now to the most surprising part of this deal.
In the initial rumors, Hillhouse would participate and invest 5 billion. Zhang Lei also reportedly mentioned to friends multiple times that since 2025, he and Liang Wenfeng had occasional exchanges, and when in Beijing, he would visit Liang's home.
But this story later evolved into: Hillhouse wouldn't participate, but Zhang Lei personally would invest. Reasons cited include Hillhouse's fundraising cycle and regulatory considerations.
Ultimately, neither Zhang Lei nor Hillhouse appeared on the list.
Sequoia China, on the other hand, was almost considered a non-participant from the beginning. The most widespread version cited concerns about overseas LPs. We asked several people close to Sequoia, and they expressed similar sentiments. Of course, other explanations are also circulating.
The bottom line is that Sequoia and Hillhouse, the two institutions that seemed almost certain to be involved, ultimately were not. A senior lawyer told us that for companies with an RMB structure, theoretically, investors cannot be hidden.
Among the established VCs, only IDG invested.
So someone asked us a question in return: Could DeepSeek potentially become Sequoia and Hillhouse's biggest miss?
It's hard to say. However, based on our understanding, DeepSeek might not just raise this one round.
100 Institutions and Individuals
Looking at the investor list, only 10 parties are listed as participating. But "elsewhere" did a simple look-through of the fund entities and found that the actual number of participants is quite high.
For example, the external CVC related to the CATL system—Puyuan Capital's backers include: state-owned assets from Xiamen, Ordos, and other regions; entities related to CATL; and the National Green Development Fund.
Several IDG Capital funds related to this transaction have strong insurance capital characteristics and account for a very high proportion of the 30 billion. Additionally, there are entities related to Nongfu Spring, Septwolves, etc.
Monolith's current LPs are mainly state-owned assets from Zhejiang and Shanghai, as well as listed companies like By-health and Yanghe Distillery.
Furthermore, iHealth Labs is also a participant. In fact, iHealth is also an LP behind many GPs.
A rough estimate, after a shallow look-through and simple deduplication, suggests that nearly 100 institutions or individuals participated in this round of DeepSeek's financing.
The Key Requirement: Don't Poach Talent
We won't reiterate DeepSeek's investment terms here. Just one addition: whether dealing with large corporations or VC funds, Liang Wenfeng's most important requirement is: do not poach DeepSeek's people or encourage them to start their own ventures.
"China's Largest Listed Company"
Returning to viewing this as an investment, what kind of odds does DeepSeek really have?
One participating investor once worriedly said, could this be an investment with too much consensus? According to the experience of the investment industry, consensus outcomes are often mediocre.
But it's hard to say that about DeepSeek. Or rather, we cannot simply understand it through a conventional investment lens, whether in terms of its significance for China's AGI industry or its spiritual meaning.
As one investor put it: "They are doing all this with immense goodwill. He seems to be telling us: this is how the world should be."
So while some hesitated, others believed, "there's no reason not to invest"—if it does IPO as some expect, could DeepSeek potentially become China's largest listed company by market cap on the A-share market?
Low Profile and Ambition
While following DeepSeek's financing progress, one prominent feeling stood out: for most people, DeepSeek was probably a completely unexpected answer. Even for the most competitive investors, they never imagined it would open up for fundraising one day.
So as mentioned, most of the well-known investment veterans only recently connected with the company. Objectively, Liang Wenfeng has indeed long avoided meeting with investors.
When news of the fundraising spread, many institutions didn't even attempt to compete for an investment opportunity. But looking at the result, some got their ticket based on synergy, some on insight, some on brand spirit, and some simply on persistence.
"elsewhere" tried to ask some investors, but most didn't want to discuss this investment much. The sensitivity of the deal is one reason, but more so, it seems to be a conscious desire to maintain this low profile, stemming from a sense of shared honor.
One participating investor said that throughout the process, he cherished every document, hoping to have them framed someday. Another investor repeated twice the 16-character phrase released with the DeepSeek V4 preview:"Not lured by praise, not frightened by slander; act according to the Way, upright and correct oneself."
