Hengdian invested in Liang Wenfeng

Over the past decade, there have been two 100-billion-yuan level financing deals in China's tech circle: one is the Pre-IPO round of Ant Financial, and the other is the ongoing Series B financing of DeepSeek.

Both deals are extremely sought-after, with all kinds of investors scrambling to get a piece of the action. Behind DeepSeek, there is a group of investors strictly screened by Liang Wenfeng, which almost gathers all the prominent players in the current market. Backed by DeepSeek with a valuation of over 500 billion yuan, Liang Wenfeng has newly entered the top 10 of the 2026 Hurun China Rich List.

It is impossible not to think of that reclusive Zhejiang tycoon who refuses to appear on wealth rankings, and this time the capital behind him has also appeared in DeepSeek's financing — Hengdian Capital, which is affiliated to Hengdian Group with an annual revenue of over 95 billion yuan, and controls 6 listed companies under its banner. It may be a deliberate arrangement that its founder Xu Wenrong and his family have never appeared on any wealth list.

In fact, there are more intriguing names behind DeepSeek's financing.

Rare gathering of Zhejiang business magnates, capital contribution from the Hengdian faction

As early as late September, the market spread the news that Hengdian Capital had secured the share of DeepSeek's Series B financing. Now as the deal draws to a close, a person close to Hengdian Capital revealed that the share is roughly around 1.5 billion yuan.

Everything leaves traces to follow.

Also in late September, a number of listed companies successively announced their capital contribution to Hengdian Capital: Transfar Zhilian, Youngor, Nanhua Futures, Zs Cultura, Jiansheng Group, Topband Lighting, Tongxing Technology, and Innuovo all issued announcements to collectively subscribe for the shares of Hengdian Bohui Venture Capital (Hangzhou) Partnership. The total size of the fund is 1.65 billion yuan, with Hengdian Capital acting as the manager, focusing on equity investment in high-growth technology innovation enterprises.

This scene is quite "influential". Without exception, all the above A-share listed companies participating in the capital contribution are from Zhejiang, where the private economy is highly active.

Taking a closer look at the Hengdian Bohui fund, it was established in June 2026 and completed the filing on September 18. Up to now, Hengdian Bohui has 16 partners in total, including the 8 A-share listed companies mentioned above, as well as Robam, Zhejiang Xinan Chemical Industrial Group, Dazhong Transportation, plus the capital under Hengdian Group and individual investor Xu Wencai.

In fact, the Hengdian Group faction holds the largest stake in this fund. Hengdian Group Holding Co., Ltd., Dongyang Sanheng Investment Management Co., Ltd., and the four listed companies of Hengdian DMEGC, Nanhua Futures, Topband Lighting, and Innuovo all belong to Hengdian Group, with a total capital contribution ratio as high as 33%.

In addition to the above enterprises and capitals, the individual investor Xu Wencai is a senior executive of Hengdian Group. He contributed 44 million yuan, accounting for 2.67% of the total capital contribution. According to public information, Xu Wencai once served as the deputy director of the Department of Business Administration of Zhejiang University, and currently serves as a director and senior vice president of Hengdian Group, concurrently acting as a director of six enterprises including Apeloa, Hengdian DMEGC, Innuovo, Topband Lighting, Hengdian Pictures, and Nanhua Futures.

Combining the establishment time of the fund, the background of LPs and its Zhejiang attribute, it is inevitable for the outside world to speculate that Hengdian Capital will use this raised fund to invest in DeepSeek. Few people know that behind this seemingly low-profile institution stands the most reclusive super-rich in Zhejiang.

Running 6 listed companies, refusing to be listed on wealth rankings

In September this year, PEdaily learned that DeepSeek released screening requirements for investors: industrialization background and listed company background, and the minimum investment of a single LP shall not be less than 100 million yuan.

Behind Hengdian Capital stands the Hengdian Group with a huge business territory.

As a super-large comprehensive group covering four major business segments of film & television cultural tourism, electrical and electronics, pharmaceutical healthcare and modern services, Hengdian Group holds 6 listed companies including Hengdian DMEGC, Apeloa, Nanhua Futures, Topband Lighting, Innuovo and Hengdian Pictures, as well as industrial companies such as Esen Chemical, Hengdian Airport, Hengdian Real Estate, and Sinoma New Materials.

With such a wide range of business, it is rare for the outside world to get a full picture of the assets of this comprehensive group. Hengdian Official once mentioned in February this year: The revenue of Hengdian Group rose from exceeding 100 million yuan in 1987, making it the first "100-million-yuan town" in central Zhejiang, to 95.6 billion yuan in 2025; its tax revenue soared from over 10 million yuan in 1993 to 3.71 billion yuan in 2025; the number of employees grew from 238 at the initial stage of establishment to 55,077.

However, for such a giant group, its founder Xu Wenrong has never appeared on any wealth list.

Back to the 1970s, Xu Wenrong, then the Party branch secretary of Hengdian Brigade, led the villagers to set up Hengdian Silk Factory, which made a profit of 76,000 yuan in the first year of operation. Under the principle of "no non-high-tech projects allowed", Hengdian Group expanded into the electronic components, pharmaceutical and chemical industries. After the new century, it further laid out industries such as aviation, film & television cultural tourism, and financial futures.

In 2003, Xu Wenrong's eldest son Xu Yong'an took over as the chairman of Hengdian Group.

A past event comes to mind: as early as 2000, Forbes magazine, where the British Rupert Hoogewerf worked at that time, released the "50 Richest People in Chinese Mainland" list, and Xu Wenrong ranked 8th with a net worth of 2.7 billion yuan. Later, Xu Wenrong found Hoogewerf and emphasized: "If we calculate the wealth of Hengdian Group, it is definitely far more than that on the list, but if we talk about personal wealth, I definitely don't have that much money." In Xu Wenrong's view, Hengdian Group is a unique community-owned economy, not his personal property.

Since then, Xu Wenrong and Xu Yong'an have never appeared on any wealth rankings.

Up to now, the controlling shareholder of Hengdian Group is still a social organization legal person, so the wealth of the Xu family is naturally immeasurable. But managing such a large-scale group, they are inevitably regarded by the outside world as the invisible super-rich in Zhejiang.

Next, watch how Liang Wenfeng spends 100 billion yuan

It is imaginable that the LP lineup of DeepSeek's investors undoubtedly also gathers a group of super old money.

A person who participated in the Series B financing once sighed to us before: LPs seeking the share of DeepSeek's Series B financing submitted capital certificates with official bank seals to him, and some accounts had a balance of more than 4 billion yuan at a glance. The strength of capital is so amazing.

Recently, we can still see news of selling DeepSeek's shares on some channels, but the market has a tacit understanding that this round of financing has come to the end of the delivery. What is quite delicate is that as the Series B financing has been expanded from the initial 500 billion yuan to about 1 trillion yuan now, the scarcity of shares has changed, "everyone gets a share", an investor joked.

However, there is still an awkward situation: Some GPs were confident at the beginning that they could get the share and raised funds from LPs first, but now they failed to get the share and are returning the raised funds to LPs.

No due diligence report, reverse screening of LPs, this is a rare scene in China's primary market.

If this round is calculated based on the financing amount of about 1000 billion yuan, plus the financing amount of about 500 billion yuan in the first round, DeepSeek has raised more than 1.5 trillion yuan in funds within half a year. This figure has already exceeded the total A-share IPO fundraising amount for the whole year of 2025.

At present, DeepSeek, with huge cash flow in hand, is releasing investment moves, focusing first on AI infrastructure and embodied intelligence — in October this year, the market has spread the news that DeepSeek has invested in the embodied intelligence startup companies founded by Hu Han, former scientist of Tencent, and Yu Tao, former head of foundation model at ExDynamics.

Admittedly, for AI startups, DeepSeek is undoubtedly the most attractive investor in the market. For example, recently, an under-the-radar in-memory-computing chip startup, which was established only a few months ago, has received bets from various well-known capitals. Its founder adheres to the principle of "not raising funds casually", but when we asked: What if DeepSeek wants to invest in you?

"That's great, such an opportunity only knocks once", he replied.

It hardly needs too much explanation. At the beginning of 2025, DeepSeek set off a large model open-source storm, which brought undeniable opportunities and benefits to the development of China's AI-related industries, which has become an important reason why many AI entrepreneurs are eager for and admire DeepSeek.

Its charm remains, but the situation is changing fast, and the long journey has just begun.

This article is from the WeChat official account "PEdaily" (ID: pedaily2012), written by Feng Yuchen, authorized to release by 36Kr.