Author:@Liu Jing, elsewhere
Information about DeepSeek's funding is already widespread.
For the known information, "elsewhere" will not reiterate. What follows are some untold stories or details we have learned.
The Legendary Four-Hour Meeting
Let's start with that investor meeting, the one passed around by word of mouth, the "four-hour meeting."
In mid-May, DeepSeek organized this online meeting using the Tencent Meeting system. By then, the investor lineup was mostly settled, with each institution having two attendance slots.
Liang Wenfeng spoke first, followed by a Q&A session where investors asked questions and Liang provided answers.
Legend has it that a CVC investor spent a full ten minutes asking questions: first a lengthy self-introduction, then three long questions. The atmosphere became somewhat awkward at one point—this scene is easy to imagine. Some people whispered among themselves, asking who that person was.
But Liang didn't mind, answering each question seriously. Although after answering the second question, he momentarily forgot the third one and asked the investor to repeat it.
Before this, most of the investors who got in hadn't even met Liang Wenfeng in person offline, so this was their first interaction with him. As a result, after the meeting ended, many felt the experience lingered with them.
Liang Wenfeng's memorable quotes and spirit began to circulate in the market.
Restraint and AGI
Liang Wenfeng is not an exceptionally eloquent speaker; his pace of speech is not fast either. But a few quotes from that meeting are often mentioned (paraphrased, the exact wording might vary slightly)—
"We have no fame or influence; we are a group of very ordinary people."
"The narrative I like is ordinary people accomplishing extraordinary things.For DeepSeek, our core is ensuring team stability—this is more important than money or resources. This is the greatest risk and also the greatest challenge."
"Assuming AGI will account for 20% of GDP, those who want 5% will lose to those who want 1%, and those who want 1% will lose to those who want 0.1%."
"What we want to do are things related to improving intelligence; we won't do anything else."
"AGI is a sufficiently big thing; everything else is just part of the process."
Throughout the four hours, Liang Wenfeng repeatedly emphasized the same themes: pursuing only AGI; less is more; restraint, etc.
From 5 Billion to 1.5 Billion
Formal fundraising roughly started in April this year. There was reportedly a so-called "fund whitelist": a list of institutions with strong investment capacity and good brands.
Initially, DeepSeek required a minimum ticket size of 5 billion RMB, prohibited syndicating shares, and required a pure RMB structure.
Against this backdrop, an investment tycoon initially rumored to be a sure participant but ultimately not involved was, according to market gossip, excluded because they had allegedly pitched shares to Middle Eastern LPs.
But in China, there are very few market-oriented funds capable of a single investment of 3 billion RMB. So, some VCs repeatedly negotiated whether multiple fund entities could participate.
Therefore, looking at the outcome, the minimum fund commitment was reduced to 1.5 billion RMB, and the fundraising method became more flexible.
There was also talk that participating institutions ideally should not have invested in other large models. This was highly unlikely, for a simple reason—being a top-tier fund without having invested in large models is contradictory.
At the investor meeting, Liang Wenfeng also expressed that DeepSeek was willing to help other companies—even including large model companies. Of course, the premise remained that they wouldn't poach his people.
Monolith
Monolith Capital appeared early on the investor list. The change was that the initial version was 1.5 billion, and the final amount was 3 billion.
The change in numbers is said to be related to the adjustment in Guozhitou's allocation, which freed up some shares—judging from the latter's figure of 980 million RMB, it seems designed to be just under 1 billion.
Regardless, being willing to make big bets is indeed Cao Xi's distinctive style. He has already proven it once with Kimi.
Monolith is likely the youngest VC among the participating institutions in this round.
Zhengxingu
Zhengxingu is probably the most surprising presence on the final list.
Many interpret it as Zhengxingu not having invested in any Chinese large model company before, thus being more eager to get on board. But according to our information, they actually invested in Kimi, roughly between $6 billion and $10 billion valuation. However, relative to their fund size, the invested amount was relatively limited.
One market interpretation is that Zhengxingu's founder comes from a secondary market background, seemingly having more connection with Huafang. But actually, in the secondary market, quantitative investing and fundamental investing are two distinct circles, even with different values.
According to our understanding, besides Lin Lijun and his partnerYe Chunyan, this investment also happened due to the efforts of a new investor who joined.
Zhengxingu was also one of the earliest VCs to communicate with DeepSeek.
Could DeepSeek Be the Biggest Miss for Sequoia and Hillhouse?
Now to the most surprising part of this deal.
In the initial rumors, Hillhouse would participate, investing 5 billion. Zhang Lei also reportedly told friends multiple times that since 2025, he has occasionally communicated with Liang Wenfeng, visiting Liang's home when in Beijing.
But this narrative later evolved into: Hillhouse would not participate, but Zhang Lei would invest personally. The reasons vary, some say it's related to Hillhouse's fundraising rhythm, others say it's related to regulation.
In the end, neither Zhang Lei nor Hillhouse appeared on the list.
As for Sequoia China, it was almost considered from the beginning as not participating. The most widespread version concerns worries about overseas LPs. We asked many people close to Sequoia, and they roughly expressed similar sentiments. Of course, there are other circulating theories.
The final result is that Sequoia and Hillhouse, the two institutions that seemed almost certain to be involved, ultimately did not appear. A senior lawyer told us that, in theory, companies with an RMB structure cannot be hidden.
Among the old-guard VCs, only IDG invested.
Thus, someone asked us a question: Could DeepSeek become the biggest miss for Sequoia and Hillhouse?
That's hard to assess. However, according to our understanding, DeepSeek may not only raise this one round.
Nearly 100 Institutions and Individuals
Looking at the investor list, only 10 entities participated. But "elsewhere" simply conducted a preliminary look-through of the fund entities and found that the actual number of participants is quite high.
For example, the behind-the-scenes investors of CATL-affiliated off-balance-sheet CVC—Puquan Capital—include: state-owned capital from Xiamen, Ordos, etc., entities related to CATL, and the National Green Development Fund.
Several funds related to IDG Capital in this transaction have strong insurance capital attributes, accounting for a very high proportion of the 3 billion. Additionally, there are entities related to Nongfu Spring, Septwolves, etc.
Monolith's current LPs are mainly state-owned capital from Zhejiang and Shanghai, as well as listed companies like By-health and Yanghe Brewery.
Furthermore,iHealth Labs Inc. (Jiu'an Medical)is also a participant. In fact, Jiu'an is also an LP behind many GPs.
A rough estimate, after a shallow look-through and simple deduplication, shows that nearly 100 institutions or individuals participated in this round of DeepSeek's financing.
The Biggest Requirement: Don't Poach People
We won't elaborate on DeepSeek's investment terms here. Just one additional point: Whether towards 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"
If we return to viewing this as an investment, what kind of odds does DeepSeek really have?
One participating investor once expressed an overly worried thought: Could this be too much of a consensus investment? According to investment industry experience, consensus outcomes are often mediocre.
But for DeepSeek, it's hard to say that. Or rather, we cannot understand it through a simple investment lens. Whether it's 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: The world should have been like this all along."
So while some hesitated, others believed, "couldn't find any reason not to invest"—if, as some expect, it goes for an IPO, could DeepSeek potentially become China's largest listed company on the A-share market?
Low Profile and Ambition
While following DeepSeek's fundraising progress, a prominent feeling emerged: For most people, DeepSeek was probably a completely unexpected answer. Even the most competitive investors didn't expect it to open for funding one day.
So as mentioned before, most well-known investment figures also only recently connected with the company. Objectively, Liang Wenfeng has indeed long avoided meeting investors.
When the fundraising news broke, many institutions didn't even try to seek an investment opportunity. But looking at the result, some got their ticket based on so-called synergies, some on insight, some on brand ethos, and some simply on sheer effort.
"elsewhere" tried to ask some investors; most didn't want to discuss this investment much. The sensitivity of the deal is one aspect, but more so it seems a conscious desire to maintain this low profile, feeling honored to be part of it.
One participating investor said that throughout the transaction process, he treasured every document, hoping to frame them someday. Another investor repeated twice the 16-character phrase released with DeepSeek V4 Preview:"Not seduced by praise, not intimidated by slander, act according to the Way, uphold oneself with integrity."
