Key facts
- Chinese AI startup DeepSeek plans to hire Yan Wentao as its first chief financial officer.
- Yan Wentao has dealmaking experience and is a partner at venture-capital firm GL Ventures.
- DeepSeek has hired CITIC Securities to prepare for a possible listing on Shanghai's STAR Market.
- The company is in an ongoing fundraising round valued at about 500 billion yuan ($74 billion).
- In June, DeepSeek raised about $7.4 billion at a post-money valuation of more than $50 billion.
Chinese AI startup DeepSeek is preparing for a potential initial public offering by hiring Yan Wentao, a partner at venture-capital firm GL Ventures, as its first chief financial officer. The move signals a significant step in the company's transformation towards a more conventional corporate structure as it seeks to dominate the AI race.
Reuters reported last week that Hangzhou-based DeepSeek had hired Chinese brokerage CITIC Securities to prepare for a possible listing on Shanghai's technology-focused STAR Market. A CFO typically plays a central role in managing investor communications, financial controls, capital allocation, and disclosure processes required for a listing.
The appointment of Yan, who has dealmaking experience, would be a significant step in DeepSeek's transformation from a research-focused lab bankrolled by its founder's hedge fund into a more conventional corporate structure. Sources close to the planned appointment could not be named as they were not authorized to speak publicly.
GL Ventures is the venture-capital arm of Hillhouse Investment, an investment firm founded by China-born investor Zhang Lei. Hillhouse is not an investor in DeepSeek. DeepSeek and Hillhouse did not immediately respond to requests for comment, and Yan could not be reached.
Yan was born in 1991, according to Chinese venture-capital publication Zero2IPO, which lists AI developer and DeepSeek rival MiniMax among his representative investments.
DeepSeek is in an ongoing fundraising round that values it at about 500 billion yuan ($74 billion), Reuters reported in July. In June, it raised about $7.4 billion at a post-money valuation of more than $50 billion. The company has also increased spending on computing infrastructure, chip development, and talent. Early last year, DeepSeek made global headlines when it released low-cost AI models that led to investor skepticism about U.S. claims on the massive spending needed to build advanced AI systems. The company is controlled by founder Liang, who financed the startup via his quantitative hedge fund High-Flyer from its inception in 2023 until earlier this year, when it began seeking external fundraising.