Monolith, the Chinese venture firm that 36Kr reported as an investor in DeepSeek, is raising a third US-dollar venture fund with a target of $561 million, according to a Form D filed with the SEC on 29 October and first reported by DealStreetAsia. By our arithmetic, that is 1.94 times the $289 million target on the Form D for its second fund, filed in October 2025.
The filing covers two Cayman Islands partnerships, Monolith Venture Fund III A L.P. and Monolith Venture Fund III B L.P., and lists $0 sold, no investors yet and a first sale that is “yet to occur”.
The key insight: Monolith’s third US-dollar fund targets $561 million on a Form D filed 29 October, 1.94 times the $289 million on its Fund II filing by our arithmetic, with $0 sold and no investors in yet.
The Form D gives a total offering amount of $561,000,000, a total amount sold of $0 and $561,000,000 remaining. It reports 0 investors who have already invested and no non-accredited investors.
The general partner is Monolith Venture GP III LLC. The filing names Xi Cao and Ziqi He as related persons, and Xi Cao signed it on 29 October 2026. It claims the Rule 506(b) exemption and describes the issuers as venture capital funds.
The filing reports $0 in sales commissions and finders’ fees. It adds that “The Issuers’ General Partner or its designee is entitled to a management fee payable by the Issuers.”
Total offering amount on the initial Form D of each Monolith US-dollar venture fund: Fund I $250 million (19 January 2023), Fund II $289 million (3 October 2025), Fund III A and B $561 million (29 October 2026), from SEC EDGAR. The 1.94x is our arithmetic. Offering amounts are targets, not closed totals.
Three Funds, Three Filings
Monolith’s two earlier US-dollar funds also filed Form Ds. Monolith Venture Fund I L.P. filed on 19 January 2023 with a $250 million offering amount. Monolith Venture Fund II L.P. filed on 3 October 2025 with $289 million.
All three filings report $0 sold and a first sale “yet to occur”. EDGAR lists no later amendment for Fund I or Fund II, so the filings show each target, not each final close.
By our arithmetic, the Fund III target is $272 million above Fund II’s and 2.24 times Fund I’s. The three targets add up to $1.1 billion.
The DeepSeek and Kimi Link
36Kr reported in July that Monolith took part in DeepSeek’s Series A financing, “alongside other participants including Tencent, NetEase, JD.com, IDG Capital, ZhenFund, and Shixiang Technology.” It said Monolith “invested approximately 3 billion yuan”. Our earlier coverage of that round is in DeepSeek said to raise $15 billion, double what it first sought.
Cao Xi told a 2026 summit, as quoted by 36Kr: “We prioritize investing in model companies, with 20% of our first fund allocated to Kimi.” Kimi is made by Moonshot AI, which we covered in Moonshot AI’s Kimi K3 and the open-weight thesis.
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As we read the three filings, Monolith files its Form D before any money comes in: each one, for Fund I, Fund II and Fund III, reports $0 sold and a first sale yet to occur.
As we read it, the jump comes after the stakes 36Kr reported in two Chinese model makers: DeepSeek, where Monolith invested about 3 billion yuan, and Kimi, which Cao Xi said took 20% of the first fund.
FOR FOUNDERS The Form D lists a $561 million target across two partnerships, Fund III A and Fund III B, with no investors in yet.
FOR THE FUND’S INVESTORS The filing says the general partner or its designee is entitled to a management fee, and it reports $0 in sales commissions and finders’ fees.
FOR THE MODEL LAYER 36Kr reported that Monolith took part in DeepSeek’s Series A alongside Tencent, NetEase, JD.com, IDG Capital, ZhenFund and Shixiang Technology.
The framework sets a task for every investor: “The job of any operator, investor, or builder is to know which layer they are operating inside and which layer the binding constraint is rotating toward next.”
As we read it, Monolith has placed its money at the model layer, with DeepSeek and Kimi as 36Kr reported. The framework is the owner’s argument and does not discuss Monolith.
The Form D gives a target, not a close. It does not name the investors, the split between the A and B partnerships, or the fund’s planned sectors. The filings for Fund I and Fund II also show targets only.
The DeepSeek stake rests on 36Kr’s report; DeepSeek has not published an investor list we could check. We read DealStreetAsia’s headline, not its full article.
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Monolith’s third US-dollar fund targets $561 million on its 29 October Form D, 1.94 times the $289 million on Fund II’s by our arithmetic, with nothing sold yet. The firm 36Kr reported as a DeepSeek investor is asking for nearly twice the target on its previous US-dollar fund’s filing.
A note on sourcing. The fund figures are from Monolith’s Form D filings on SEC EDGAR. The DeepSeek and Kimi details are from 36Kr; DealStreetAsia first reported the filing. The 1.94x, $272 million, 2.24x and $1.1 billion figures are our arithmetic.
Gennaro Cuofano is a CRO and tech executive who has worked in AI since late 2015, starting with bringing NLP, natural-language generation, voice and chatbot products to the marketing industry. His background is in law and finance: he holds a Master's degree in Law and an International MBA with an emphasis on corporate finance (LUISS Business School and the University of San Diego, 2012), and worked as a financial analyst at a real-estate investment firm in San Diego and as an assistant controller. His work focuses on business model strategy, business engineering and, more broadly, structural analysis: how companies make money, read from their own filings. He created FourWeekMBA and leads research there and at The Business Engineer, his newsletter on AI and business strategy, with over 95,000 subscribers and more than 1,000 published analyses. His writing has also appeared on Entrepreneur (for example, How to Digitize a Family Business in Europe) and HackerNoon. Find him on LinkedIn and Substack. See how we source.
