According to a report from technology media on September 14th, DeepSeek is set to welcome a new CFO, with the leading candidate being Yan Wentao, a partner at Hillhouse Capital's venture investment arm, who is currently in the process of leaving his position. Reports indicate that Liang Wenfeng has also engaged with several core leaders from top domestic investment institutions, including heads of firms such as 5Y Capital and Sequoia Capital China. Notably, Liang Wenfeng has expressed a preference for the new CFO to be a member of the post-90s generation.

Public records show that Yan Wentao, born in 1991 and a graduate of Fudan University, previously worked at Tencent Investment and H Capital before joining Hillhouse's venture arm in 2020. As a prominent representative of young investors, Yan Wentao has long focused on early-stage technology investments, participating in projects involving cutting-edge companies such as MiniMax, Zhipu AI, and ByteDance.

According to earlier reports, DeepSeek has selected CITIC Securities to prepare for its initial public offering (IPO) on Shanghai's STAR Market. Sources familiar with the matter revealed that DeepSeek plans to initiate its IPO process this year. A Reuters report from July indicated that the company is conducting a funding round that would lift its valuation to 500 billion yuan (approximately 75 billion U.S. dollars). In June of this year, DeepSeek had just completed a funding round of about 7.4 billion dollars, achieving a post-investment valuation exceeding 50 billion dollars.

Meanwhile, DeepSeek has clearly been making rapid moves recently, with new model launches filling gaps in multimodal capabilities alongside various user experience adjustments. For instance, the company unified its quick, expert, and image recognition modes into a single entry point to alleviate user choice fatigue. The official homepage has also been revamped, placing the conversation window directly at the center of the page, eliminating the previous need for redirects before initiating a chat. Additionally, pricing for the Flash model has been significantly reduced.

These actions indicate that DeepSeek is placing greater emphasis on user feedback and practical needs, while addressing shortcomings in its consumer-facing offerings. This year, DeepSeek has also substantially expanded its workforce on multiple occasions, most recently hiring 150 new employees in one round. With these developments, DeepSeek appears to be inching closer to its long-anticipated IPO.