Liang Wenfeng is urgently recruiting CFO and wants financing?

Liang Wenfeng is urgently recruiting CFO, is he going to raise funds?

Updated on: 19-0-0 0:0:0

來源 | 融中財經（ID：thecapital）

Author | Abu

"I invested so much money for you, why didn't you vote for Liang Wenfeng for us?"

Since DeepSeek became popular at the beginning of the year, rounds of introspection meetings have been carried out in various places, and VCs with government guidance funds have to be asked by LPs.

"Fortunately, Liang Wenfeng is not open for financing at present, and all institutions have not invested in it, otherwise it is really difficult to explain to the top." A partner of a South China institution told a reporter in Rongzhong.

However, just recently, DeepSeek released a number of finance-related positions, involving CFO, COO, vice president of finance, and chief financial officer.

Suddenly, news came out in the market, Liang Wenfeng is really going to open up financing?

就在2月份，DeepSeek曾被傳出考慮首次外部籌款，並引起了包括阿裡巴巴、國有基金在內的多個投資者的興趣。然而，這些融資消息被證實為謠言。

Liang Wenfeng, the founder of DeepSeek, said in an interview that although he had tried to seek outside investment, he ultimately shelved the idea because of the qualitatively different return goals from the commercialization of venture capital institutions. At present, DeepSeek's start-up funding is generously provided by High-Flyer Quant and has not yet opened the funding window to the outside world.

This time, recruiting for several positions in the finance direction, are Liang Wenfeng and DeepSeek ready?

According to the recruitment positions, in addition to AI technology-related positions, this time DeepSeek released several finance-related positions for the first time, from ordinary financial directors all the way up to CFO.

The CFO (Chief Financial Officer) is a position that plays an important role in a business. Not only a senior accounting position responsible for financial management, but also a key player in the company's strategy formulation and decision-making process.

The market speculated about the purpose of the recruitment, which seems to be in preparation for the opening of financing. Regardless of how the plan progresses, investors are already the first to boil.

"If this is thrown in, promoted and raised, won't it be easy to get it?" An early investor said.

"I haven't seen Liang Wenfeng until today"

Since its inception, DeepSeek has not raised a single round of funding. This also made the entire investment circle spread the saying that "VC missed DeepSeek". The most interesting thing is that this regret made Baidu Venture Capital upstairs in DeepSeek's Beijing office very embarrassed, and Baidu Venture Capital had to immediately come forward to clarify the question that it did not invest in the same building.

Gao Xue, CEO of Baidu Ventures, said: "We are the VC upstairs of DeepSeek. Gao Xue revealed that as soon as DeepSeek entered the Rongke Information Center in 5/0, Baidu Venture Capital visited its relevant person in charge and maintained friendly interaction. Since High-Flyer Quantitative Fund's large-scale model business does not have a split independent financing plan, Baidu Ventures, like other VCs, has not been able to become an investor in DeepSeek at present. ”

Who can not regret not investing in such a super phenomenal enterprise that has the right to speak in the global technology field?!

To this day, the entire VC community is still reflecting on why they missed out on DeepSeek.

"I approached three groups of people more than a year ago to meet with Liang Wenfeng (founder of DeepSeek) through them, but they were all rejected. The reason for refusing to meet is probably that we don't have the spirit of innovation and that we don't have the same way. At the recent "Asian Young Scientist Fund Project - Shanghai Frontier Science Exchange Conference", when talking about the next generation of disruptive innovation, Liu Qin, founding partner of Wuyuan Capital, recalled.

"Then my treatment is 'better' than yours, because of the computing power of the chip, I have communicated and followed up with the people of DeepSeek." Chen Datong, managing partner of Puhua Capital, then quipped.

梁文鋒火了之後，很多機構各種打聽他的聯繫方式，目的就是見一面。找關係、探門路，今年2月份，一些早期投資人忙得不可開交，投資人也幻想，“這個專案我要是搞定了，那升職加薪還不是手到擒來？！”

But as a result, no one saw Liang Wenfeng.

However, the news in the market has not stopped, and it has been rumored that Liang Wenfeng has been in contact with Alibaba and Tencent to explore potential cooperation opportunities, but Liang Wenfeng said that he is not in a hurry to raise funds now, because he is worried that external investors will interfere with the company's decision-making.

事實上，梁文鋒並非沒有進行過融資推薦。2023年之後，DeepSeek曾向多家風投機構推銷自己，包括一些外國公司，但這些機構因看不到明確的回報路徑而拒絕投資。儘管隨著最近R1模型的崛起，有更多投資者表示了興趣，但梁文鋒在考慮公司長期戰略時拒絕了他們。

"It's a pity that I didn't invest in it, but as long as Liang Wenfeng is open for financing, we will definitely try our best to chase it in." The above-mentioned early investors said bluntly.

但面對融中，“你們能給多少估值”的問題，該投資人沉默了一下，“我們認為超過100億估值可能是有的，雖然大家都會考慮風險平衡，但是LP對這個專案的渴望，可能會讓大家願意承擔更大的風險。”

"Even if it's a little more expensive." He said.

Liang Wenfeng, do you want to open up financing?

Just recently, there has been new news in the market, and DeepSeek seems to be hiring for several positions in the finance direction, such as CFO and financial director.

一時之間，大家紛紛猜測，難道，終於等來DeepSeek融資了？

Don't rush yet.

In fact, most of DeepSeek's current funding sources come from High-Flyer quantification. High-Flyer has performed well in quantification, and has also earned a lot of "pocket money" for DeepSeek.

Over the 140-0 years, High-Flyer's quantitative funds have significantly outperformed the market, sometimes outperforming the stock market benchmark by 0 to 0 percentage points. By 0 years, the scale of assets under management of High-Flyer reached about $0 billion.

However, the fund's performance then declined, and by the end of 2023, several High-Flyer products were down more than 0% from their recent highs, and the company had to apologize to investors. Its flagship fund continued to record losses in both 0 and 0 years, but still outperformed the tracker.

Two years ago, High-Flyer basically stopped accepting new investments, and encouraged some investors to redeem from mid-2024. As of the end of last year, the scale of assets under management of High-Flyer has shrunk significantly.

In 4/0, High-Flyer announced its strategic transformation and established DeepSeek as an independent organization to invest almost all of the revenue from its quantitative fund business in AI development. But on the road to commercialization, DeepSeek doesn't seem to have found the "best of both worlds" that balance benefits and ideals.

At this time, hiring for finance-related positions is intended to raise funds, which seems logical, but it may also be for a better corporate funding structure to help DeepSeek embark on a fast-paced development path.

從目前看，DeepSeek並不差錢。

2016年，幻方管理的資金規模已經大約10億元。2017年，達到30億元。2019年，超過百億元。巔峰期是2021年，規模達到1000億元人民幣。當時，梁文鋒也對外講過壓力很大，因為“如果一年跑贏指數低於25%，投資人是不滿意的。”

因為不是上市公司，幻方的收入不公開，但外界從可以查到的資產規模和產品收益來推測，幻方這幾年的管理費在每年10億左右，業績提成好的年份可能在幾十億。近年來，幻方已經很少對外募資，基本都是自有資金。

Liang Wenfeng and High-Flyer also basically uphold the tradition of China's quantitative funds and will regularly do public welfare. According to relevant data, High-Flyer Quant donated a total of 380 million yuan to charities in 0 years, and Liang Wenfeng personally donated 00 million yuan to charities in the name of "an ordinary pig".

Just last Thursday, the Hurun Research Institute released the "40 Hurun Global Rich List", and Liang Wenfeng, the 0-year-old founder of DeepSeek, was on the list for the first time.

在AI領域，梁文鋒和OpenAI 39歲的Sam Altman分別以330億元和130億元人民幣的財富首次登上胡潤全球富豪榜。值得一提的是，梁文鋒的財富比Sam Altman的兩倍還多。

"Liang Wenfeng holds more than 80% of DeepSeek's shares, and if DeepSeek reaches OpenAI's current valuation of one trillion yuan, he is expected to become the richest man in China," said Hurun Report, chairman and chief research officer of Hurun Report. ”

憑藉著DeepSeek在AI領域的成功，梁文鋒此前就被外界認為很有可能成為全球超級富豪之一。今年2月彭博社對7位初創公司創始人及AI專家的調研顯示，預計DeepSeek的估值在10億美元到1500億美元之間，估值區間的中間值為20億至300億美元。

AI races and goes into white heat

Not long ago, William Bin, the founding partner of Orbit Startups, a top venture capital, described when talking about China's investment circle, "About half of the (Chinese) VCs can't survive now."

But DeepSeek seems to have excited the entire investment industry again.

"Our strategy now is to invest around DeepSeek." The above-mentioned early investors told the reporter in Rongzhong, "DeepSeek did not seek financing, which is the regret of most head investors, if DeepSeek is open for financing later, I believe that no matter how much money they are willing to participate, but at the moment, it seems that there is no place to cooperate with DeepSeek." ”

In this context, the large model of quantification, the entrepreneurs of Zhejiang University, and even the former employees of High-Flyer have become the targets of investors, and they truly "invest around DeepSeek." ”

2025開年以來，一級市場的動作也透露了一些風向：先是隨著DeepSeek需求爆棚而走紅的AI Infra公司們紛紛宣佈新的融資情況；之後具身開始變得火熱，2月20日，星海圖宣佈完成新一輪A輪近3億元融資，3月6日，智平方完成新一輪過億元Pre A+輪融資。日，國內團隊發佈的通用型AI Agent產品Manus AI深夜刷屏，又把Agent推向台前。與此同時，中國科技資產在海外二級市場得到重估，VC圈也在熱議著“IPO開閘”的傳聞，多家VC機構開始久違的擴招。

With the DeepSeek ecosystem, the whole track is hot.

The first rumor of going public was Zhipu.

3月3日，智譜AI發佈公告稱，完成新一筆金額超10億元人民幣的戰略融資，參與投資方包括杭州城投產業基金、上城資本等。僅10天，又傳來智譜獲得珠海國資華髮集團的戰略融資。幾天后，成都宣布戰略投資智譜。

3 rounds of local state-owned strategic financing within 0 days, the market was shaken. Zhipu, which has frequent financing, is rumored to be about to go public.

Since the birth of DeepSeek, the AI Six Tigers, including Zhipu, have been in an embarrassing situation, in addition to the sky-high valuation that makes it difficult for investors in subsequent rounds of financing to take over, from a technical point of view, DeepSeek seems to have the absolute right to speak.

From Kimi, Zero One Everything, Baichuan Intelligence to Zhipu AI, some of these start-ups are trying multiple business lines, some are trying to cut spending, and stop the "pre-training" of large language models and adopt DeepSeek's models; Others are focusing on expanding their corporate sales business while pinning their hopes on initial public offerings (IPOs) to sustain their high-capital growth model.

In the past year, including Baichuan Wisdom and Zero One Everything, it has been rumored that the team has been turbulent and has given up the technical model. The white-hot competition in the large-scale model track has made commercialization the biggest challenge for everyone. Kimi, a chatbot on the dark side of the moon, also faced challenges. The report also revealed that the dark side of the moon is cutting Kimi's marketing spend and instead focusing on model training to replicate DeepSeek's breakthrough success and improve the performance of its chatbot. Recently, the company has tried to earn money by inviting users to send virtual gifts to Kimi.

"The Chinese LLM market is rapidly consolidating and concentrating in the hands of a handful of leading players," said Tiezhen Wang, an engineer at Hugging Face. ”

此前，智譜曾宣佈拿下了某“一帶一路”國家的海外訂單，價值千萬美元。與此同時，隨著三星等大單的簽訂，智譜節後不到一個月，收入已經過億。

Whether it is technology, commercialization, or financing acceleration, the market is speculating that Zhipu seems to be actively moving closer to the capital market.

The reason is simple, whoever can be the first to go ashore and win the title of "the first share of the big model" will have a little more advantage at the poker table.

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