Congratulations to DEEPEXI on its successful listing on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange! | 5Y News
The you others saw as crazy is starting to be believed in.
On October 28, DEEPEXI Technology Co., Ltd. (stock code: 01384.HK) officially listed on the main board of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, becoming the "first enterprise-grade large-model AI application stock" in the Hong Kong market. The global offering comprised 26.632 million shares at an issue price of HK$26.66 per share, raising a total of HK$710 million.
At the 9:30 a.m. opening, DEEPEXI surged 111.93% to HK$56.50 per share, giving it a market capitalization of HK$18.45 billion. The stock briefly touched HK$59.60 intraday, representing a gain of over 123%. According to an HKEX announcement, as of October 27, DEEPEXI's public offering received 7,569.83 times oversubscription, with the scale of frozen funds underscoring investors' fervent enthusiasm. With this extraordinary subscription multiple, DEEPEXI has become the most oversubscribed IPO on Hong Kong's main board this year, and also ranks first in main board IPO oversubscription multiples in Hong Kong's history.
As the "first enterprise-grade large-model AI application stock" on the Hong Kong exchange and the fifth Chapter 18C specialist technology company, DEEPEXI fills a gap in this niche segment of the Hong Kong market while precisely positioning itself at the core entry point on the eve of an enterprise AI explosion. This scarcity has become the key driver attracting capital. Its unique track advantages and technological layout have laid a solid foundation for long-term growth, positioning it to fully unlock value potential as the industry enters its expansion phase.
Jiehui Zhao, Founder, Chairman and CEO of DEEPEXI, said in his listing ceremony speech: "Seven years ago, in 2018, inspired by the social environment of innovation and entrepreneurship and the industrial policy landscape, and with the founding mission of 'Every Effort Counts, Technology for All' to contribute to our nation's industries, we assembled a deeply idealistic founding team and established DEEPEXI. Seven years later, in 2025, based on the sustained trust and partnership of 283 enterprise clients, and through our colleagues' continued belief in the power of accumulated effort and their passionate perseverance, we have arrived as promised, successfully completing our IPO on the Hong Kong capital market.
Following this successful listing on the Hong Kong capital market, DEEPEXI has gained a solid foundation for further leaps in technological innovation, product R&D, brand influence, and international market expansion. Taking this as a new starting point, DEEPEXI will undoubtedly rise to greater responsibilities with greater capabilities.
In this new era where AI technology innovation advances by the day and is opening up transformative changes across industries, we will devote ourselves fully to the process of AI technology innovation. We firmly believe that the integrated development of data technology and large AI model technology will ultimately achieve enterprise-grade intelligence. DEEPEXI will continue to build and accumulate technological advantages in the Data+AI domain, closely integrating these leading technologies with various industries to create real value for clients, and to drive the rapid development and implementation of AI+industry for the benefit of all sectors. This is also staying true to our founding mission of 'Every Effort Counts, Technology for All,' and fulfilling our founding team's ideal of contributing to our nation's industries — 'Our Efforts, Technology for All.'"
5Y Capital led DEEPEXI's Series A funding round in 2019 and subsequently supported two additional consecutive rounds. Kai Liu, Partner at 5Y Capital, said: "5Y Capital began systematically deploying in B2B software as early as 2016, which became a key focus of our investment direction after 2019. We have always believed that a new generation of general-purpose infrastructure software would emerge in China — software that may originate from the internet but extends far beyond serving internet clients alone. When we first met the DEEPEXI team in 2019, their industry understanding and chosen direction resonated deeply with us, and the team demonstrated exceptionally mature management capabilities. 5Y Capital's three consecutive rounds of investment stem not only from our long-term conviction in the enterprise software track, but even more from our sustained and steadfast confidence in the DEEPEXI team.
The Hong Kong listing is but one milestone among many in the company's development journey. It lays a financial foundation for future growth while also carving out a trustworthy path for China's enterprise software industry. We believe the Chinese B2B market will nurture an increasing number of success stories, and China's general-purpose infrastructure software companies will ultimately go global."
Jiehui Zhao, Founder, Chairman and CEO of DEEPEXI (left), Kai Liu, Partner at 5Y Capital (right)
The following is a reflection from Kai Liu, Partner at 5Y Capital:
Long-Term Conviction
Jiehui Zhao is one of the rare founders in my investment career who started talking about culture, mission, and values from our very first meeting. I still vividly remember that in the conference room of the company's first office in Guangzhou, there was an entire wall of handwritten notes about how to manage teams and work together. For the most part, this was seen as eccentric behavior.
Early-stage investors generally worried that entrepreneurs with big-company backgrounds excelled at management but lacked execution ability. But Zhao didn't shy away from this bias. His judgment was clear: in China, doing B2B enterprise services, true core competitiveness is management capability — how to find the right people, design mechanisms, and organize a group of people spanning multiple industries and regions. This is the foundation of enterprise software. He was willing to confront this "non-consensus" view head-on in the early days of his startup, and this was precisely what revealed his scarce value to us.
Another non-consensus stance was his cool-headed assessment of "middle platforms," a buzzword at the time. In an era when "middle platform" had practically become a fundraising ticket, many entrepreneurs from major internet companies built their businesses around this concept. But Jiehui Zhao was the first entrepreneur I met who explicitly stated that "middle platforms don't work." His logic was remarkably simple: entrepreneurship isn't about carrying a hammer looking for nails, nor about building a perfect product first and then finding customers. It's about starting from real customer pain points, delivering a "60-point" solution first, completing the business loop, and then continuously optimizing. This way of thinking was neither Silicon Valley nor aligned with the product-driven mainstream philosophy of the time, yet it fit the reality of the Chinese market extremely well and was later proven effective in practice. I have always believed that early-stage investing is essentially a bet against human nature — the more non-consensus the path, the greater the opportunity it often conceals. In Zhao, I saw the possibility of Chinese enterprise software breaking through, and the ambition of a severely underestimated entrepreneur.
Throughout its development, DEEPEXI also went through multiple product pivots, team adjustments, and external challenges including sudden capital market chills. Yet at critical junctures, DEEPEXI consistently made the right calls. Relying on its solid sales management capabilities and execution, DEEPEXI navigated the most difficult cycle in B2B history, achieving annual doubling even against an industry backdrop of zero growth. This resilience and ability to transcend cycles is precisely the entrepreneurial quality we value most.
5Y Capital's Non-Consensus Path in Enterprise Services
Prior to DEEPEXI's IPO, our heavily invested and successfully listed enterprise software companies include Kingsoft Office WPS, Agora, and Taimei Medical.
As early as 2017, 5Y Capital began developing investment theses and building our portfolios around the enterprise services theme. As one of the initiators and key participants in this track, I have witnessed the industry's evolution from early obscurity to becoming a mainstream investment focus, and then through the deflation of the bubble back to genuine enterprise value. When the industry was just emerging, I was a complete newcomer to investing with no concept of the field — from only knowing how to pull partners along to meet founders, to experiencing negative investment feedback, to forming deep reflections, I took many detours.
Our Three-Phase Investment Methodology in Enterprise Services:
Phase 1: Seeking Network Effects (2015–2017)
Our earliest investment thinking drew from lessons in internet investing. We believed enterprise software should build business models around network effects, like social software — we were trying to find the next Slack and Notion in the enterprise software space.
Phase 2: Infra First (2017–2022)
As the industry developed and our understanding evolved, we discovered that infrastructure software is an exceptional business with ultra-high barriers and extremely long lifecycles. We began searching for Chinese companies capable of providing next-generation cloud infrastructure software.
Phase 3: AI-Driven & Globalization (2023–Present)
As massive industries accumulated vast amounts of data and entered deep digitalization, the value of AI began to emerge. At the same time, large models brought an entirely new generation of technical architecture. We believe cloud + large models will give birth to a new batch of enterprise software companies that will fully benefit from the large model dividend.
Looking back now, these three phases of evolving investment strategy were undoubtedly forward-looking at the time. Based on our methodology of deep reflection, 5Y Capital saw through the layers of fog in the industry, allowing us to avoid many detours and wrong turns in our investments.
DEEPEXI's listing is not just a highlight moment of a company transcending cycles and reaching the capital markets — it also signals that China's enterprise software industry has arrived at a new starting point. It proves that in a track long underestimated, persisting in doing the hard but right things and maintaining long-term conviction will ultimately be recognized by time.
For 5Y Capital, this is both an important milestone and another footnote in our long-term journey of accompanying China's B2B industry toward maturity. We believe that when the "crazy" you in others' eyes begins to be believed in, the world will open up in unprecedented ways.
5Y Capital seeks out, supports, and inspires lonely entrepreneurs, providing support from the spiritual to all operational dimensions. We believe that when the "crazy" you in others' eyes begins to be believed in, the world will open up in unprecedented ways.
BEIJING · SHANGHAI · SHENZHEN · HONG KONG
