DeepSeek vs StepFun

Neither company has publicly disclosed a valuation, making a definitive size comparison difficult. DeepSeek employs 150 people, while StepFun has 100-500 employees.

DeepSeek has raised more in total funding at $700M, compared to StepFun's $200M — a gap of $500M. Combined, the two companies have completed 1 known funding rounds.

DeepSeek holds the higher Awaira Score at 92/100, compared to StepFun's 58/100. The Awaira Score is a composite metric factoring in valuation, funding, stage, team size, and market presence — a 34-point gap that reflects meaningful differences in scale or traction.

DeepSeek was founded by Liang Wenfeng in 2023. StepFun was founded by Jiang Daxin in 2023. Visit each company's profile on Awaira for a full founder biography.

DeepSeek: DeepSeek is a Chinese foundation model company founded in 2023 that develops large language models and AI systems. The company has secured $700M in total funding with valuation details not disclosed. DeepSeek operates as a corporate entity focused on creating advanced AI models for various applications. The company develops large language models designed for natural language processing tasks, code generation, and reasoning capabilities. DeepSeek's approach emphasizes efficient model architectures and training methodologies. The company has released models accessible through API interfaces and web platforms, targeting both enterprise and research applications. DeepSeek competes within the global foundation model landscape alongside companies like OpenAI, Anthropic, and other Chinese AI firms. The company positions itself in the rapidly expanding market for accessible AI models, particularly targeting cost-effective deployment and inference. The firm's growth trajectory reflects increased investment in Chinese AI infrastructure and competition in foundation model development. DeepSeek represents part of China's broader push toward AI self-sufficiency and technological advancement in machine learning. Notable aspects include the company's focus on model efficiency and its significant funding round, indicating substantial backing for model development and infrastructure. The company operates in a competitive space where continuous model improvements and capability demonstrations drive market positioning. DeepSeek represents China's emerging capability in developing competitive large language models with substantial capital backing and focus on efficient model architectures. StepFun: StepFun develops multimodal foundation models for Chinese and English language applications, producing the Step series of large language and vision-language models that target enterprise deployment through API and private cloud licensing. The Beijing company was founded by Jiang Daxin, a former senior executive at Baidu, bringing search and large-scale AI infrastructure experience to foundation model development in the rapidly competitive Chinese LLM startup market.\n\nThe company raised approximately $200 million in early funding from Chinese venture capital firms including Hillhouse Capital and other technology-focused investors backing the wave of Chinese foundation model startups that emerged following the launch of ChatGPT. StepFun models are positioned for enterprise customers in finance, legal, and customer service sectors requiring high-quality Chinese language reasoning and instruction following capabilities.\n\nStepFun competes in a crowded Chinese foundation model market alongside Moonshot AI, MiniMax, Zhipu AI, and Baichuan, as well as the AI divisions of Alibaba, Baidu, and ByteDance that have substantially greater compute resources and distribution. The Chinese foundation model market has seen aggressive fundraising and model release activity as the government signals support for domestic AI capability development. Differentiation among Chinese LLM startups is increasingly difficult as model benchmark performance converges, shifting competition toward vertical domain adaptation, inference cost, and enterprise integration services.

Both DeepSeek and StepFun were founded in the same year — 2023. Despite sharing a founding year, they may have launched at different times within that year, which can matter in fast-moving AI markets.

DeepSeek has approximately 150 employees, while StepFun has approximately 100-500. A larger team often signals higher revenue or venture backing, but in AI, smaller teams are increasingly capable of building at scale.

Yes, DeepSeek and StepFun are direct competitors — both operate in the Foundation Models space and likely target overlapping customer segments. This comparison is especially relevant for buyers evaluating both platforms.