DeepSeek hires dealmaker as CFO ahead of possible IPO on Shanghai’s STAR Market

DeepSeek, the Chinese AI company that rattled Silicon Valley earlier this year with its low-cost large language models, is getting serious about going public. The Hangzhou-based startup is appointing Yan Wentao, a partner at GL Ventures, as its first-ever chief financial officer.

The CFO hire comes shortly after DeepSeek brought on CITIC Securities, one of China’s largest investment banks, to handle pre-listing preparations for a potential IPO on Shanghai’s STAR Market. The company is targeting 2026 to start the listing process, with a 2027 listing as the goal.

From research lab to corporate machine

Yan Wentao, born in 1991, is young for a CFO role at a company of this magnitude. Founder Liang Wenfeng has reportedly favored modernizing the company’s corporate functions, and bringing in a venture capital dealmaker rather than a graying finance veteran fits that philosophy.

At GL Ventures, Yan built experience in managing investor relationships, structuring deals, and navigating the mechanics of getting a company from private to public. His mandate at DeepSeek will reportedly include investor relations and financial controls.

Founded by Liang Wenfeng, who also runs the quantitative hedge fund High-Flyer, DeepSeek initially operated as a privately funded research operation. That’s changing fast. The company completed a funding round in June 2026, raising approximately 50 billion RMB, roughly $7 billion, at a valuation near 52 billion RMB. Strategic backers including Tencent and JD.com participated. The company is now reportedly eyeing a follow-on round that would value it at approximately 500 billion RMB, a nearly tenfold jump.

The revenue picture

DeepSeek is reportedly nearing $500 million in annual revenue, a number that, if accurate, would represent a remarkable commercial ramp for a company that was primarily known for open-source model releases just 18 months ago.

Shanghai’s STAR Market was specifically designed to attract high-growth technology companies. A company approaching half a billion dollars in yearly revenue has a much easier story to tell regulators and institutional investors than one running purely on hype.

What this means for the AI landscape

DeepSeek became a global talking point in January 2025 when its R1 model demonstrated performance competitive with much more expensive Western alternatives, briefly wiping hundreds of billions of dollars off US tech stocks. A successful public listing would cement its position as a legitimate competitor to OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google DeepMind.

A 2027 target gives DeepSeek roughly 18 months to continue scaling revenue, complete its follow-on funding round, and build the kind of corporate governance infrastructure that public market investors expect. The company is also pursuing founder control through non-voting shares acquired in prior funding rounds.

A 500 billion RMB target valuation on a follow-on round would place DeepSeek among the most valuable private AI companies globally. If the IPO prices anywhere near that range, public market investors will demand a very clear path to profitability. Yan Wentao’s mandate as CFO will include building the investor relations and financial controls needed to support that case.