“Science and Technology Innovation Board Daily”, September 11 (Reporter Zhang Yangyang) Technological innovation begins with technology and becomes capital. At the 2024 Pujiang Innovation Forum, the conference held a series of thematic forums focusing on technology finance topics, focusing on preparing major articles on technology finance, focusing on investing early, investing in the long term, and investing in hard technology to build a full-chain, full-life cycle financial service system for technology-based enterprises from startup to maturity, and promote technology demand and financial supply in both directions.

From scientific research to transformation of achievements to industrial development, every step is inseparable from financial support. As one of the important participants in technology finance services, Gao Jianbing, member of the Party Committee of the Shanghai Branch of SPD Bank, was interviewed by a reporter from the Financial Federation's “Science and Technology Innovation Board Daily” on the afternoon of the day of the conference.

▍ Service science and innovation become the first track

In a rapidly changing global economic environment, scientific and technological innovation has become an important driving force for economic growth and social progress. As one of the earliest commercial banks in China to get involved in the field of financial services for technology enterprises, according to Gao Jianbing, SPD Bank participated in financing technology enterprises as early as 2009. At the time, it mainly provided financing services.

As technology enterprises gradually become the main force in economic development, SPD Bank began providing comprehensive service solutions for science and innovation enterprises from 2017 to 2023. Since SPD Bank's “five major tracks” strategy was proposed, it has been listed as the first track to serve science and innovation enterprises. Based on this, SPD Bank proposed the strategic goal of “commercial bank+investment bank+ecology”, focusing more on providing overall services to technology enterprises and establishing a product system throughout the life cycle.

For example, using the growth cycle of science and innovation enterprises as a reference, in order to meet the needs of science and innovation enterprises at different stages of development, SPD Bank provided enterprises with “maker loan” products during the start-up period. For technology “little giant” companies, SPD pioneered the “Little Tech Giant Credit Loan”; for specialized and new enterprises, the “Specialized, Special and New Enterprise Service Plan” was launched; for science and innovation enterprises that are about to go public, SPD Bank provides listed loan products.

These products cover the different stages of an enterprise from inception to development and growth to listing, providing a full range of financial support to science and innovation enterprises to meet the financing needs of enterprises at specific stages.

In August of this year, the Shanghai branch of SPD Bank and Pudong Venture Capital cooperated to launch the “Innovation Loan” product, focusing on the exclusive financial service plan and special products “Puchuang Incubation Loan” and “Pudong Venture Joint Loan” formulated by SPD Bank for Pudong Venture Capital's “Innovation Loan”.

Among them, “Puchuang Incubation Loan” is a credit loan issued by SPD Bank to micro, small and medium-sized enterprises in the seed stage, start-up period, incubation period, or technology, small and medium-sized enterprises that have obtained specialized, special and new “little giant” enterprises, and high-tech enterprises. Businesses can enjoy online loan processing, online approval, and quick loans. Online up to 10 million yuan can be supported, and the maximum offline amount can reach 30 million yuan.

Shanghai Yapeng Biotechnology Co., Ltd. is a specialized and new enterprise in Shanghai. It specializes in R&D, transformation, processing, sales and service of allogeneic repair materials. It focuses on developing new products, and has carried out strategic cooperation with many domestic research institutes and top three hospitals. Recently, the number of orders received by enterprises has increased rapidly, and there is an urgent need to supplement liquidity through bank credit. After learning about the needs of the enterprise, SPD Bank's Zhangjiang Technology Branch provided the enterprise with a credit line of 10 million yuan, which greatly enhanced the ability of science and technology enterprises to operate.

According to the data, by the end of the year 2024, SPD Bank's Shanghai branch had a technology loan scale of over 110 billion yuan, serving more than 12,000 technology enterprises, and accounting for over 90% of services for science and technology innovation board enterprises in Shanghai.

▍ The time is right for banking institution service transformation

However, most technology companies are in the start-up phase and growth period. “Light assets, no collateral, high investment, and long cycle” are characteristics of technology-based enterprises, and are also their risks. For banking institutions, controlling these risks is also an important part.

In response, Gao Jianbing said that the Shanghai branch of SPD Bank currently mainly focuses on the three leading industries of artificial intelligence, biomedicine, and semiconductors, and has formed a special team to conduct research on these three major industries. In terms of loan risk, SPD Bank Shanghai Branch has broken through traditional loan logic and placed more emphasis on intangible assets such as enterprise growth, customers and models, technology and talent. These have become key elements in loan evaluation, while providing higher credit limits and terms. Gao Jianbing said that judging from the current loan situation, the non-performing loan ratio for technology-based enterprises is low.

Furthermore, there are challenges in understanding and evaluating technology in technology-based enterprises. Among start-ups, although some technologies have potential, there is uncertainty about whether they can become mainstream technology, which is also a challenge for banks.

In terms of guarantee measures, although intellectual property and digital asset guarantees have also appeared at present, these two have not yet become mainstream. There are difficulties in determining their valuation, and no consensus has yet been reached on the decision side. Further in-depth research and discussion is needed on how to provide guarantee support through intellectual property rights, digital assets, etc.

In the process of serving science and innovation enterprises, there is currently a certain degree of financing difficulties in the primary market. Some PE/VC institutions need to achieve a cycle of investment and finance withdrawal, but now there are certain difficulties in the withdrawal process. How banks can participate and play a greater role is an issue that needs to be discussed at present.

“As interest spreads on traditional deposits and loans gradually narrowed, SPD Bank Shanghai Branch also realized that it was necessary to transform its business to meet the requirements of the new era. On the one hand, we are reducing our service clients to more technology-based enterprises, and on the other hand, we are expanding our investment business, such as providing services such as technology mergers and acquisitions loans, so as to achieve diversified business development.” Gao Jianbing said, “At the same time, SPD Bank is also actively adjusting its role from a simple financial fund provider to a comprehensive service provider covering financial support and non-financial services.”