Xu Wenrong, Zhong Suisui, Cao Xi…Liang Wenfeng formed a “Zhejiang Gang”

Author: Wei Xianghui

In Guangdong in the 1990s, factories were hiring and business was booming. As long as young people are willing to venture out, they can make their first pot of gold. The private economy is booming, and many people believe that wealth can change destiny more than a diploma.

But a primary school teacher in Wuchuan, Zhanjiang, Guangdong, has his own persistence. Although parents often come to him and tell him that “study is useless,” he still attaches great importance to education and insists that his son study hard. My son also did his best and was admitted to Zhejiang University at the age of 17.

Over the next twenty years, the boy completed his undergraduate and master’s degrees in Hangzhou, studied machine vision, and tried to apply machine learning to financial transactions with his classmates. He also founded a quantitative investment institution with Zhejiang University alumni. In 2015, Huanfang Technology was established in Hangzhou. In 2023, DeepSeek was also born in Hangzhou. That Guangdong boy rose to fame.

Like Liang Wenfeng’s hometown of Guangdong, Zhejiang, where DeepSeek is located, has an active private economy and a long-standing business tradition.

As early as the Ming and Qing Dynasties, Longyou merchant gang, Ningbo merchant gang and Shaoxing merchant gang were already active in various places. In modern times, Ningbo merchants entered Shanghai along the waterway to operate banks, shipping and trade. There was a saying in Shanghai that “there is no market without peace.” After the reform and opening up, Wenzhou businessmen traveled all over the country, Yiwu’s small commodities were sold all over the world, and Hangzhou gradually became a center for Internet and technology entrepreneurship.

After all, doing business cannot be separated from people. The elders support the younger ones. Even if the younger ones become successful, they should not forget the old friendship. During business dealings, relationships and trust slowly accumulate, and many things have room for negotiation.

In 2026, Liang Wenfeng opened the door to external capital for the first time. A group of Zhejiang capital quickly gathered behind him. A company with a strong sense of technological idealism, but behind it stands a group of capital figures with a strong sense of local business. At first glance, it looks a bit like Zhejiang Capital’s “Rural Bureau”。

2.3% may not seem like a high proportion, but when combined with DeepSeek’s financing threshold, it’s actually not low. Taking the first round of financing as an example, Liang Wenfeng and the founding team still firmly control the company. Hangzhou Chengli, as an important external shareholding platform, holds approximately 8.52% of DeepSeek’s equity. Although it cannot be regarded as the shareholding ratio of all external investors, in such a financing with tight investment qualifications, it is enough to attract attention that Zhejiang Capital can occupy a position.

Take a closer look at the roles in this capital game. There are local state-owned assets, private enterprises organized by the Hengdian system, and Zhejiang rich people like Zhong Suisui.. They originally had their own businesses and capital paths, but they finally intersected at DeepSeek.

It is difficult for the outside world to know how much old friendship and new consensus of interests there are behind these funds. The only thing that is certain is that in such a project with tight investment shares, it is not an easy task to be able to get on the table.

▲The Zhejiang-based investor behind Deepseek, source: China Investment Network

“The arena is not about fighting and killing, it is about human relationships.” Even with cutting-edge technology like large models, when it comes time to share the pie, there is still a network of relationships behind it that ordinary people can’t see clearly.

Cao Xi builds a bridge, and state-owned assets enter the game

Let’s talk about the previous situation first.

Liang Wenfeng approached investors in his early years, but because his idea of ​​focusing on cutting-edge exploration did not match the VC’s desire to make money, he gave up the idea. But this did not prevent waves of investors from queuing up to check in at Deepseek. I remember that an investment institution with “big eyebrows and big eyes” told me to queue up and get an account first. What if I raise funds in the future?

Well prepared for a rainy day, this institution finally appeared on DeepSeek’s investor list recently. However, to say that the most popular thing this time is Cao Xi’s thinking capital. Not only has it appeared in DeepSeek’s financing network for two consecutive rounds, it has also become the largest “channel” for DeepSeek’s share.

說起來， Lisi has not been established for a long time, but it has already set its sights on several of the most popular tracks for AI entrepreneurship in China, such as Dark Side of the Moon, Wuwen Xinqiong, Mu Xi… there are Lisi behind it.. Focusing on DeepSeek, in May this year, DeepSeek’s first round of financing entered a critical stage, and the Tianjin Lisi Xingling Fund under Lisi was established. Since then, this fund with a scale of approximately 2.9 billion yuan has indirectly participated in DeepSeek financing through Hangzhou Cheng Li.

The first-round investors were mainly selected by Liang Wenfeng himself. As for how he and Cao Xi established the connection, we have no way of knowing when the two parties first discussed investment. But the financing ticket for DeepSeek that Lisi obtained shows the popularity of Boss Cao.

▲Cao Xi, founder of Lisi Capital, Picture Source Network

This admission ticket soon showed its value.

In the LP list of Lisi Xingling Fund, the third phase of Zhejiang Financial Investment Science and Technology Innovation Fund of Funds has appeared, holding about 6.9% of the fund share. Roughly converted according to the fund size, it corresponds to an investment of about 200 million yuan.

Zhejiang State-owned Assets has thus entered DeepSeek’s indirect investment network. Some media disclosed that the participation of state-owned assets in the first round was not high. Only the National Artificial Intelligence Industry Investment Fund directly invested in DeepSeek, investing approximately 980 million yuan. It is not restricted by the lock-in period and enjoys the company’s voting rights.

In the second round, the cooperation between Zhejiang State-owned Assets and Boss Cao further expanded.

In early November, Tianjin Lisi Xingshen, another fund under Lisi, completed a fundraising of 7.52 billion yuan, with 40 LPs participating, and Lisi continued to obtain DeepSeek’s investment share.

Among them, Zhejiang Innovation Deep Intelligent Venture Capital Partnership subscribed 1.4 billion yuan, as the second largest investor in the fund. In addition, Zhejiang Science and Technology Innovation Fund and Science and Technology Innovation Future Fund each subscribed 50 million yuan. The three Zhejiang state-owned assets subscribed a total of 1.5 billion yuan.

From about 200 million yuan in the first round to 1.5 billion yuan in the second round, the scale of Zhejiang state-owned assets’ subscriptions to Lisi-related funds has increased significantly.. However, Xingshen is a blind pool fund, and public information cannot yet prove that all of the 1.5 billion yuan was actually invested in DeepSeek, and Lisi has not made any public response to the outside world.

In the capital circle, finding money is one skill, and finding good projects is another skill. Cao Xi happens to have these two abilities at the same time. But to me, the ability to win projects is more important. You know, how many people want to invest in DeepSeek but can’t find a way. Boss Cao has it all.

Hengdian organizes bureau, Zhejiang businessmen gather

Different from the official situation, when people in the world join the game, they usually have to have a big brother who takes the lead.

Xu Wenrong, the boss of Hengdian Group, is like the leading brother in Zhejiang private capital.

Many people know Hengdian because it is home to one of the largest film and television shooting bases in China. The palaces, markets, and feuds in ancient costume dramas are often staged here. But the real business story of Hengdian started much earlier than the film and television city.

In 1975, Xu Wenrong led local farmers to establish a silk reeling factory, which later gradually developed industries such as magnetic materials, pharmaceutical chemicals, and electronics and electrical appliances. By the 1990s, Hengdian Group had become an important local enterprise. In 1996, the construction of Hengdian Film and Television City began, and the film and television industry that later became famous throughout the country was established.

Xu Wenrong is a representative figure of the first generation of township entrepreneurs in Zhejiang. His entrepreneurial experience almost condenses the development history of Zhejiang’s private economy after the reform and opening up: starting from township factories, relying on manufacturing to accumulate capital, and then extending to different industries.

However, Xu Wenrong has his own understanding of wealth. In 2000, the China Rich List compiled by Hurun ranked Xu Wenrong as one of the richest entrepreneurs in China. Xu Wenrong later approached Hurun and explained that the assets of Hengdian Group could not simply be counted as his personal wealth. Hengdian Group has a unique corporate economic background and is not a private enterprise of the Xu family.

Since then, Xu Wenrong and his family have rarely appeared on rich lists.

▲Xu Wenrong, Picture Source Network

In China’s business society, wealth figures are one way to measure an entrepreneur’s influence; how much industrial resources he can organize is another. Over the past few decades, Hengdian Group has developed into a large enterprise group with annual revenue of more than 95 billion yuan and owns a number of listed companies. Xu Wenrong gradually retreated behind the scenes, while Hengdian’s industrial and capital network continued.

In 2026, this network may extend to DeepSeek.

On June 8, Hengdian Baihui Venture Capital (Hangzhou) Partnership was established. On September 18, the fund completed its filing. Starting from late September, a number of Zhejiang listed companies have successively disclosed investment announcements.

Transfar Zhilian is here, Youngor is here, Xin’an Co., Ltd. is here, Hengdian Dongmei, Debang Lighting, Yingluohua, Jiansheng Group, Nanhua Futures and other companies are also on the investment list.

The founders and actual controllers of these companies are all prominent figures in the Zhejiang business community. They represent a group of private enterprises that have collectively experienced manufacturing expansion, capital market development and industrial transformation. Each has gone through decades of industrial cycles and completed capital accumulation in different fields.

For these seniors who have been operating in Zhejiang’s business community for many years, the young man from Guangdong who came to Hangzhou to study at the age of 17 more than 20 years ago is already the one they are competing to make friends with.

According to the announcement of the listed company, Hengdian Baihui Fund plans to raise 1.65 billion yuan, and its investment direction is high-growth technology companies. Hengdian Capital serves as the fund manager, and Xu Jiawei is the legal representative of Hengdian Capital.

Judging from public documents, these companies’ investment in the fund was not completed on the same day, but joined one after another as the fund expanded. In the announcement disclosed by Chuanfa Zhilian in September, there was already an arrangement for Hengdian Baihui to expand its fundraising to 1.65 billion yuan. Since then, Youngor and other companies have continued to disclose related investments.

According to people close to Hengdian Capital, Hengdian Capital received DeepSeek’s second round investment share of approximately 1.5 billion yuan. If this information is finally confirmed by the delivery documents, then Hengdian Baihui’s fund size of 1.65 billion yuan will be quite close to the DeepSeek investment share it received.

The richest man takes action, the big guys place bets

Compared with the collective investment organized by Hengdian Capital, Zhong Suisui, the richest man in Zhejiang, entered DeepSeek in a much more subtle way.。

I checked the public equity information and found that Zhong Suisui, through its affiliated investment entities, through multi-level partnerships such as Guanzi Equity Investment (Lishui), Tianjin Huixing, Tianjin Huiqi, etc., finally entered Hangzhou Chengli and indirectly participated in the first round of DeepSeek’s financing. According to media estimates, the investment scale is about 350 million yuan.

It is somewhat surprising that this entrepreneur, who has accumulated huge wealth through Nongfu Spring and Wantai Biotechnology, appears in the investment network of a basic model company.

▲Zhong Suisui, founder of Nongfu Spring, picture source network

The outside world calls Zhong Suisui a “lone wolf in the business world” and always acts alone. Born in Zhejiang, he worked as a journalist and salesperson in his early years, and later entered the drinking water industry and founded Nongfu Spring. His main wealth has long been concentrated in consumer goods and biomedicine, and he rarely appears in public as a technology investor.

However, being low-key does not mean there is no action. According to Xizhi Technology’s Hong Kong Stock Exchange listing application documents, Guanzi Venture Capital appeared on the pre-IPO shareholder list of this AI optical computing chip company. Now participate in DeepSeek through related funds, Zhong Suisui’s investment landscape already involves AI computing power and basic models.。

Another surprising investor is Zhejiang Longsheng. In the equity chain of DeepSeek’s first round of financing, Zhejiang Longsheng passed through Hangzhou Longshan Chemical, Shanghai Lejin, Shanghai Tanying and other related entities, and finally entered Hangzhou Chengli. According to the penetration calculation of public equity relations, it corresponds to approximately 0.086% of DeepSeek’s indirect equity.

Zhejiang Longsheng is famous for its dye and chemical business. Traditional manufacturing businesses such as dyes and chemical intermediates have long formed its industrial foundation. Now, this established listed company has also established capital ties with a large AI model company through its investment platform.

Geely is another story.

Geely Automobile Industry Fund participated in DeepSeek’s second round of financing. Compared with the indirect investments made by Zhong Suisui and Zhejiang Longsheng through related funds, Geely has more direct artificial intelligence application scenarios.

From smart cockpits and assisted driving to automobile research and development, manufacturing and supply chain management, AI technology is entering many aspects of the automotive industry. Geely has also continued to deploy intelligent businesses in recent years. For the automotive group, investing in a basic model company, in addition to potential financial returns, also leaves room for future technology cooperation.

In fact, many traditional industrial capitals have appeared in DeepSeek’s first round of financing. In addition to CATL, which is reported to have invested about 5 billion yuan, listed companies such as Jiu’an Medical and By-Health are also indirectly involved through funds.。

Overall, DeepSeek’s choice of investors in its second round of financing shows a stronger industry orientation. It is said that DeepSeek requires prospective investors to explain the data support and business collaboration resources it can provide. Institutions with industrial backgrounds such as Geely and GigaDevice’s Stony Brook Capital, Lenovo’s Legend Capital, and SMIC Juyuan have become new faces in this round of financing.

Behind the new rich is old money after all. The arrival of the old money has made this upstart technology company look a little more substantial. In this situation, some people value the wealth returns that technological change may bring, some hope to find new growth opportunities for existing industries, and some just hope to have a place in the next round of technological competition and buy a ticket to the future.