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21st Century Business Herald reporter Wang Xue and intern Zhang Cong report from Wuhan

At a time when we are vigorously developing new types of productive forces, technological innovation driving industrial development has become an irreversible trend. Makers rooted in the grassroots serve as the foundation and have become the focus of cultivation in major cities.

Wuhan has fertilized the soil for innovation and entrepreneurship, continuously released its magnetic attraction, and gathered the "multiplier effect" of makers. "Wuhan should not only be the place where entrepreneurs' dreams begin, but also the place where dreams come true." A relevant person in charge of the Wuhan Small and Medium Enterprise Development Promotion Center said that Wuhan is currently actively linking resources from all parties and guiding financial capital to invest early, small and hard technology, so that makers at home and abroad can come to Wuhan to start businesses without lack of space, market, talent and funds.

On July 25, the launching conference of the series of activities "Have a Dream, Come to Wuhan, and Create Together" hosted by the Wuhan Economic and Information Technology Bureau was held. The "Implementation Plan for the Ten Thousand Makers Innovation and Entrepreneurship Project" (hereinafter referred to as the "Plan") was interpreted, and it was clearly pointed out that Wuhan strives to cultivate more than 10,000 innovation and entrepreneurship projects each year. By 2025, it will cultivate more than 30,000 maker teams and fully support more than 10,000 innovative small and medium-sized enterprises; guide various financial institutions such as banks, insurance, and equity investments to provide financial support of no less than 10 billion yuan each year to technology-based enterprises.

However, the road to entrepreneurship is full of thorns. Young entrepreneurs generally reflect that the lack of experience of the team, poor market connection, and difficulty in financing have become "obstacles" that must be overcome on the road to entrepreneurship. "The entrepreneurial dream will begin, but whether it can be realized is a big question." An entrepreneur pointed out.

A reporter from 21st Century Business Herald noted that in recent years, Wuhan has helped entrepreneurs realize their dreams by optimizing effective government functions, attracting various types of capital to invest early, small, and hard technologies, and guiding entrepreneurs to develop hard-core technologies.

In 2023, Wuhan City issued the "Implementation Plan for Accelerating the Cultivation of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises and Promoting the Development and Growth of the Private Economy", and systematically implemented the "Seventy Thousand Projects" including "Ten Thousand Makers Innovating and Starting Businesses", "Ten Thousand Enterprises Upgrading to Scale and Becoming Refined", "Cultivating Ten Thousand Innovative Small and Medium-sized Enterprises", "Ten Thousand Enterprises Matching Supply and Demand", "Trillion Small and Medium-sized Enterprises Financing", "Ten Thousand Enterprises Empowering Digital Transformation", and "Ten Thousand Cadres Assisting Enterprises and Serving". It strives to significantly improve the total scale, innovation capability, digitalization level, service environment, and comprehensive strength of small and medium-sized enterprises in the city.

A relevant person in charge of the Wuhan Small and Medium Enterprises Development Promotion Center pointed out that the Ten Thousand Makers Innovation and Entrepreneurship Project is the foundation of the "Seventy Thousand Project". Wuhan will carry out the Ten Thousand Entrepreneurs Seedling Action and the "Double Hundred and Double Thousand Action for Transformation of Scientific and Technological Achievements". It will take the cultivation of high-level makers, domestic economic regional makers, digital economy and other industry fields as the implementation path, vigorously cultivate innovative and entrepreneurial teams engaged in scientific and technological innovation research, entrepreneurial learning and practice, and lay a solid foundation for entrepreneurship and innovation.

Specifically, Wuhan City has released the "three lists" of the dual innovation policy system, carrier space, and series of activities, which will form a "multi-level, full-cycle, and full-chain" entrepreneurship assistance policy at the municipal and district levels, covering talent attraction and retention, entrepreneurship subsidies, innovation and development, financial support, etc.; providing entrepreneurs with no less than 1 million square meters of available incubation space each year, and planning to build more than 3.96 million square meters of small-scale science and technology parks focusing on innovation and research and development; guiding and mobilizing various types of corporate entities to release application scenario demands of no less than 10 billion yuan each year; and overall, it is expected to hold more than 1,000 dual innovation activities of various types, covering more than 10 cities across the country, and serving more than 50,000 entrepreneurs.

It is worth noting that "no venture capital, no entrepreneurship" has become a consensus in the industry, and Wuhan City is focusing on projects on one hand and connecting with the capital market on the other. At the conference, 13 investment and financing institutions including Shenzhen Capital Group, Chuangxin Capital, Shunwei Capital and others jointly signed the Wuhan Initiative of "Investing Early, Investing in Small Companies, and Investing in Hard Technology", providing "drip irrigation" + "accompanying" investment and financing services for Wuhan's local high-quality maker projects.

Tang Zhongcheng, managing partner of Tongchuang Weiye, pointed out in an interview with 21st Century Business Herald that the results of innovation and entrepreneurship often take time to verify, and "patient capital" is particularly important. In the early stages of entrepreneurship, companies may face multiple difficulties such as low market recognition, technical bottlenecks, and capital shortages. Capital needs to give entrepreneurs enough time and space to solve problems, optimize products, and expand the market. "The realization of 'patient capital' not only depends on venture capital institutions, but also requires the support of government funds to accompany the growth of enterprises in the long term."

Wuhan City is working hard to build a venture capital ecosystem and has established two government industrial funds, Wuhan Fund and Jiangcheng Fund, striving to empower finance with more than 300 billion yuan through "investment-led" financial capabilities.

"CoreEngine Technology, a company in Wuhan, has grown from a start-up to a 'unicorn' in less than five years, benefiting from the early investment driven by Wuhan Investment Holdings Group and Wuhan Fund. In addition to Wuhan Fund, Jiangcheng Fund focuses on the pan-semiconductor field, supplementing, strengthening and expanding the chain around Wuhan's integrated circuit industry. In the next five years, the government's investment in industrial funds will reach more than 50 billion yuan. By attracting social capital to create a 300 billion to 500 billion yuan parent-child fund cluster, it will effectively drive long-term capital to 'invest early, invest in small companies, invest in the long term, and invest in hard technology.'" said a relevant person in charge of the Wuhan Small and Medium Enterprises Development Promotion Center.

In addition, Wuhan has also explored and expanded its comparative advantages, giving play to its talent advantages and transportation location advantages, highlighting their scarcity. According to reports, Wuhan will promote the entrepreneurial angel mentor group to provide a series of guidance for college students' innovation and entrepreneurship, provide free entry policies for college students' entrepreneurship parks, and provide financial support such as interest-free loans and interest-subsidized "Youth Entrepreneurship Loans"; large leading companies such as Dongfeng Motor, China Information and Communications Technology, and Yangtze Memory Technologies fully support internal innovation and entrepreneurship. For example, Dongfeng Motor's innovation center platform allocates 100 million yuan of funds each year for project incubation, with a single reward of up to 600,000 yuan and strategic investment of 5 million yuan.

In terms of transportation location advantages, Gao Jianguang, partner of Oriental Fortune Capital, pointed out in an interview with a reporter from 21st Century Business Herald that "Wuhan is a quasi-first-tier provincial capital city in China, with convenient transportation. Basically, high-speed rail can reach economic cities in the center of the country in four hours. The potential for industrial synergy is very large, which is crucial to the construction of a unified national market."

"In comparison, Wuhan is very determined to support innovation and entrepreneurship. Oriental Fortune has invested in startups in Wuhan in the industries of 'optical chips, screens, terminals and networks', biomedicine, etc. Next, it will continue to pay attention to high-quality hard technology companies and further realize investment." Gao Jianguang further pointed out.