Deepen technological innovation and expand growth space (in-depth observation) - a survey on the development of gazelle companies and unicorn companies
2024-08-12
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This article is reproduced from [People's Daily];
Figure 1: In the intelligent debugging workshop of Zhejiang Mingrui Intelligent Equipment Technology Co., Ltd., staff are debugging the production line.
Photo by Cao Longhua
Figure 2: The satellite solar panels developed by Galaxy Aerospace are in the unfolded state.
Photo by Li Chunchao
The Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee held a meeting on July 30 and pointed out that it is necessary to effectively support the development of gazelle enterprises and unicorn enterprises. This important deployment has pointed out the direction for cultivating and developing new quality productivity and promoting high-quality economic development, and has also aroused great attention from all walks of life to gazelle enterprises and unicorn enterprises.
What are gazelle enterprises and unicorn enterprises? What is the significance of developing these two types of enterprises to my country's economic and social development? How should relevant policies effectively support the development of gazelle enterprises and unicorn enterprises? Recently, the reporter visited some gazelle enterprises and unicorn enterprises to observe their growth and development potential.
Strive to become an important force in developing new quality productivity
Relying on its independently developed software system, Zhejiang Mingrui Intelligent Equipment Technology Co., Ltd. has achieved the first place in the domestic bag-feeding packaging machine market share and has become an innovative leading (gazelle) enterprise in Wenzhou City.
"The reason why the company has been able to run faster and jump higher like a gazelle in recent years is that it has seized the track of technological innovation and continued to deepen its efforts." Chen Wenhua, a relevant person in charge of the company, told reporters that from 2021 to the present, the company has invested more than 82 million yuan in research and development. The latest development is the intelligent packaging production line for trays used for pre-prepared food packaging. The packaging speed is 40% higher than the industry average, and the packaging material savings are 10% higher than the industry average.
In nature, gazelles are known for their agility. Gazelle enterprises are named because they have similar characteristics to gazelles: small size, fast running and high jumping, that is, they have strong innovation ability, new professional fields and great development potential. They mainly include small and medium-sized enterprises that have entered a high growth period supported by technological innovation or business model innovation.
Also relying on its continuous efforts in technological innovation, Beijing Galaxy Power Aerospace Technology Co., Ltd. has developed into a unicorn enterprise in my country's commercial aerospace field.
In November 2020, the independently developed "Ceres-1" was successfully launched for the first time, marking the first time that a Chinese private commercial rocket entered a 500-kilometer sun-synchronous orbit; in July 2024, the medium-to-large reusable liquid rocket "Ceres-1" successfully completed a series of fairing tests and is expected to make its maiden flight at the end of the year... At Galaxy Power, the scientific research team has completed many innovative projects.
Similar to Galaxy Power, unicorn companies generally refer to unlisted companies that have been established for no more than 10 years, have a valuation of more than US$1 billion (a small number have a valuation of more than US$10 billion), and possess unique core technologies, unique competitive advantages and market potential.
The difference between gazelle enterprises and unicorn enterprises is mainly reflected in the growth stage and development scale. Gazelle enterprises are mainly small and medium-sized enterprises, while unicorn companies are more mature and larger enterprises. Gazelle enterprises are generally considered to be the reserve team of unicorn enterprises.
Li Jiaqing, president of Legend Capital, told reporters that gazelle companies focus more on the evaluation of growth, innovation and development potential, and their industry fields are mostly in line with the development direction of strategic emerging industries. Unicorn companies are often characterized by high valuations, start-ups, and difficult-to-copy business models, and the companies themselves often have a significant impact on their industries.
The reporter learned that despite differences in scale and other aspects, gazelle companies and unicorn companies also have some commonalities: on the one hand, these companies usually have high growth and innovation. Not only do they develop rapidly themselves, but they can also serve as key nodes in the industrial chain and coordinate upstream and downstream companies to form industrial clusters; on the other hand, gazelle companies and unicorn companies stand at the forefront of the industry, and their development direction often indicates future trends, playing an important leading role in industry and social development.
From international experience, the number of gazelle enterprises in a region reflects the region's innovation capability and development speed to a certain extent. As a group of enterprises with strong innovation capabilities and huge growth potential, unicorn enterprises are an important indicator of a country's and region's innovation capabilities and innovation ecology, and are also important innovation entities to enhance international and regional competitiveness.
"Gazelle companies and unicorn companies are both outstanding representatives of innovative companies and an important force in developing new quality productivity." Tian Lihui, dean of the Institute of Financial Development at Nankai University, said that at present, a new round of scientific and technological revolution and industrial transformation is reshaping the global economic structure and industrial landscape. Strategic emerging industries and future industries have become new tracks for competition among companies in various countries. Gazelle companies and unicorn companies, led by innovation and driven by high-level talents and high-level capital, are undoubtedly the key forces to promote economic transformation and industrial upgrading, and play an irreplaceable role in enhancing my country's comprehensive national strength.
Driving industrial development and providing new impetus for high-quality development
At the Beijing Galaxy Aerospace Ark Laboratory, a golden satellite "wing" attracts attention. When unfolded, it is about 9 meters long, more than 2.5 meters wide, but only about 1 millimeter thick.
This thin "wing" is the satellite's solar "generator". "During the satellite launch, the solar wing is folded, and the main body thickness is less than 5 centimeters. In this way, in the future, dozens or even hundreds of satellites can be stacked up and launched at the same time, reducing the launch cost of a single satellite." Yang Qiaolong, director of the Thermal Energy Department of Galaxy Spacecraft, told reporters that the reason why the satellite wings are made so thin is to save space to the maximum extent and to transport more satellites into orbit at one time.
"In less than a year and a half, we have overcome dozens of core technology research and development challenges, including reliably pressing fragile solar cells, opening the solar wings and achieving three-dimensional rotation in space, and realizing the full process of product development from the ground to space," said Yang Qiaolong.
In the laboratory, we overcome difficulties and make a breakthrough into high technology; on the production line, we work overtime to transform the latest scientific and technological achievements into productivity.
At the same time, at the Galaxy Aerospace Nantong Satellite Smart Factory located in Nantong Development Zone, Jiangsu Province, intelligent assembly robots raise their mechanical arms to quickly grasp and accurately install, and automatic guided vehicles are busy in the workshop... On the orderly satellite intelligent production line, satellites are being mass-produced.
"Build satellites like cars." In this intelligent manufacturing factory, the satellite production line adopts a human-machine collaboration mode, introduces a variety of advanced technologies and equipment such as assembly robots, intelligent equipment, and digital manufacturing systems, and realizes a complete manufacturing closed loop for satellites weighing 100 to 2,000 kilograms.
"The mass-produced satellite launch and networking, with a large number of satellites orbiting the earth in succession, will form a global satellite network, which will help solve the problem of Internet access in underdeveloped communication areas such as the deep sea, deserts, and mountainous areas," said Cheng Ming, head of Galaxy Aerospace's Nantong Satellite Smart Factory.
At present, Galaxy Aerospace has built my country's first low-orbit broadband communication test constellation "Little Spider Web" based on 8 independently developed low-orbit broadband communication satellites, which can achieve continuous broadband communication for 30 minutes. "Little Spider Web" has been conducting low-orbit application tests in multiple scenarios such as air, land and sea.
From forming a team to designing satellites, from manufacturing satellites to producing satellites in small batches and launching commercial orders to the market and completing delivery, Galaxy Aerospace completed the closed loop in just over three years, becoming a unicorn company in my country's commercial aerospace and satellite Internet fields. In the view of Xu Ming, the founder of Galaxy Aerospace, the field of satellite Internet must speed up the research of key core technologies and accelerate the transformation and industrialization of scientific and technological achievements.
Galaxy Aerospace brings not only technological breakthroughs, but also the development of the entire industrial chain.
In 2020, upon learning that Galaxy Aerospace was looking for a city to set up its smart manufacturing factory, Nantong Industrial Investment Fund and its Development Zone Smart Manufacturing Fund gave full play to the industry guidance and cultivation role of government funds, and promoted the successful landing of the Galaxy Aerospace project in Nantong Development Zone. In September of that year, the investment contract for the Galaxy Aerospace project was signed, and the investment funds were successfully in place within 2 months, using the "acceleration" of capital to accelerate the development of Galaxy Aerospace.
Today, a number of upstream and downstream enterprises in the aerospace industry chain have settled in Nantong, and the industrial ecology has a strong development trend. It is expected to form a multi-field integrated aerospace industry ecology worth hundreds of billions of yuan during the 14th Five-Year Plan period.
The success of Galaxy Aerospace is not an isolated case. In recent years, my country's overall scientific and technological innovation strength has steadily improved, the innovation system has become increasingly complete, and a large number of gazelle companies and unicorn companies have been nurtured, injecting inexhaustible impetus into the high-quality development of the economy and society.
The "China Unicorn Enterprise Development Report (2024)" shows that as of March 2024, there are 369 unicorn companies in my country, which is more than a quarter of the number of unicorn companies in the world. They are distributed in 16 fields and cover 47 cities across the country.
According to statistics from Minsheng Securities, in terms of city distribution, cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Hangzhou, and Suzhou are the main gathering places for gazelle companies and unicorn companies. In terms of industry distribution, biotechnology, software services, semiconductors, health technology, artificial intelligence, and enterprise services are areas where relatively more gazelle companies and unicorn companies are born.
"As high-growth technology-based companies, the rapid development of gazelle and unicorn companies can inject fresh blood into economic growth, drive collaborative innovation in the upstream and downstream of the industrial chain, promote employment, and enhance the country's overall scientific and technological strength and international competitiveness." Li Dawei, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Macroeconomic Research, believes that supporting the development of gazelle and unicorn companies is of great significance to the high-quality development of China's economy. These companies can accelerate the transformation of scientific and technological achievements into real productive forces, build a more resilient and competitive modern industrial system, and provide a continuous source of momentum for cultivating new quality productive forces.
Precise policy support provides a good innovation ecology and business environment for enterprise development
In the production workshop of Hangzhou Zhongxin Wafer Semiconductor Co., Ltd., chamfering machines, grinders, cleaning machines and other machines and equipment are running at high speed. After various processes such as chamfering, grinding, cleaning and polishing, finally one fine silicon wafer after another "appears" smoothly from the production line.
It has been selected into the list of national specialized and innovative "little giants" enterprises and has become a manufacturing unicorn enterprise... In recent years, with the support of national policies encouraging innovation, Zhongxin Wafer has reaped fruitful results in its journey towards "innovation".
"The semiconductor silicon wafer industry has high technical barriers and a long R&D cycle. Enterprises need to invest more in R&D and face certain financial pressure." Guo Jianyue, general manager of Zhongxin Wafer, told reporters that during the critical period of enterprise growth, the tax policy issued by the state helped a lot. In the past two years, enterprises have enjoyed a cumulative additional deduction of 140 million yuan in R&D expenses. The more investment, the more tax reduction. Enterprises use the money saved to purchase equipment, increase production capacity, and strengthen R&D. Tax incentives continue to be transformed into a driving force for innovation and development.
"Only by reducing the burden on gazelle and unicorn enterprises can we boost innovation and development," said Tao Yuebing, chief of the Income Tax Section of the Hangzhou Qiantang District Taxation Bureau of the State Administration of Taxation. In order to implement the national policy of encouraging the development of technology-based enterprises, the Zhejiang taxation department focused on "doing one thing efficiently" and built a closed-loop mechanism for the entire process of "demand collection - policy push - tracking and performance evaluation". Relying on the tax big data platform, it intelligently matched tax and fee policies with applicable objects, realizing the transformation from "people looking for policies" to "policies looking for people" and then to "policy implementation".
With precise policy support, enterprises have grown rapidly and economic development has accelerated. Thanks to the rapid development of Zhongxin Wafer and other companies, Qiantang District of Hangzhou, which was established only three years ago, has five major leading industries, namely "automobile, pharmaceutical, chip, chemical, and aviation", and has formed one 100 billion-level and three 50 billion-level industrial clusters.
Having more gazelle and unicorn enterprises means that a region has stronger innovation capabilities and better development prospects, but it is not easy to incubate and cultivate such enterprises, which requires support from multiple parties and a good environment. In recent years, all regions and departments have thoroughly implemented the concept of innovative development, forming a good ecological environment that supports innovation, invests in innovation, participates in innovation, and promotes innovation, and promotes batches of gazelle and unicorn enterprises to compete in the new track of new quality productivity.
Technology-based SMEs are the new force of technological innovation. Shen Xinguo, director of the Tax Service Department of the State Administration of Taxation, told reporters that in order to reflect the precise support for technology-based SMEs, in recent years, technology-based SMEs have "taken the lead" in each round of optimization and adjustment of the additional deduction ratio for R&D expenses: in 2017, the additional deduction ratio for technology-based SMEs was raised to 75%, and then expanded to all enterprises; in 2022, on the basis of the increase in the ratio of the manufacturing industry, the additional deduction ratio for technology-based SMEs will be increased by 100%, and then expanded to other enterprises and institutionalized and long-term. In addition, the tax department has extended the loss carry-forward period for technology-based SMEs from 5 years to 10 years.
Since the beginning of this year, the tax authorities have implemented the structural tax reduction and fee reduction policies to support technological innovation and the development of the manufacturing industry. Data show that in the first half of the year, the current policies to support technological innovation and the development of the manufacturing industry have reduced taxes, reduced fees and refunded 1,652.6 billion yuan, of which 797.2 billion yuan was reduced by additional deductions for R&D expenses and other policies to support increased investment in science and technology and transfer of results, and 191.6 billion yuan was reduced by policies to support the cultivation and development of high-tech enterprises and emerging industries, such as the reduction of corporate income tax at a 15% tax rate for high-tech enterprises and exemption of vehicle purchase tax for new energy vehicles.
The relevant support policies are not limited to the taxation field. In 2018, my country proposed for the first time to carry out the cultivation of specialized, refined, special and new "little giant" enterprises. In 2021, multiple departments jointly issued the "Guiding Opinions on Accelerating the Cultivation and Development of High-quality Manufacturing Enterprises", proposing to strive to basically form a gradient cultivation pattern by 2025, and develop 10,000 "little giant" enterprises, 1,000 single champion enterprises and a group of leading enterprises. In June this year, the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology jointly issued a notice proposing to further support the high-quality development of specialized, refined, special and new small and medium-sized enterprises through central fiscal funds, and provide strong support for accelerating the promotion of new industrialization, developing new quality productivity, and improving the modern industrial system.
At the same time, various regions have introduced policies to help enterprises reduce costs, increase efficiency and improve quality. At present, my country has established more than 1,780 public service institutions for small and medium-sized enterprises at the national, provincial, municipal and county levels, and the coverage rate of institutions in administrative regions above the prefecture level has reached 84%.
"Enterprise growth is closely related to the business environment, especially for gazelle and unicorn companies." Tian Lihui said that a market-oriented, law-based and internationalized business environment is the cornerstone for the development of gazelle and unicorn companies. We must further remove institutional and mechanism barriers, create a fair and competitive market environment for scientific and technological enterprises, increase intellectual property protection, improve innovation incentive mechanisms, and provide a good innovation ecology and business environment for enterprise development.
Strengthen patient capital and accelerate the construction of a technology financial service system that is highly compatible with the development of new quality productivity
One "eye" is a 3D laser radar, and the other is a high-precision camera. Together, the two "eyes" can identify more than 70 types of objects. With more intelligent sweeping robots and other products, Beijing Stone Century Technology Co., Ltd. is expected to increase its net profit by about 60% year-on-year in the first half of this year.
"The market that hard technology can leverage can be so big!" Quan Gang, deputy general manager of Roborock Technology, told reporters that 10 years ago, with LDS high-precision laser radar technology in hand, the Roborock Technology startup team was looking for application scenarios, and sweeping robots came into view. "This technology became the golden key to pry open the door to the market, creating a good result of profitability in the first year of entrepreneurship." Quan Gang said.
Over the past 10 years, Stone Technology has successfully exited the list of gazelle companies by relying on its high-density investment in independent innovation, and became a company listed on the Science and Technology Innovation Board in 2020.
"From receiving investment from venture capital institutions at the beginning of our business to our successful listing on the Science and Technology Innovation Board, the capital market has always injected fresh vitality into the company's technological innovation." Wang Xuan, CFO of Stone Technology, said that the listing on the Science and Technology Innovation Board raised 4.519 billion yuan for the company, providing solid support for increasing independent innovation.
The intelligent robot innovation platform project and the intelligent data platform development project are progressing steadily, the construction of the second phase of the smart factory is accelerating, and new products are accelerating their overseas launch... Since the beginning of this year, Stone Technology's pace of innovation has not stopped.
Capital is an important support for the development of gazelle and unicorn enterprises. The Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee held a meeting on April 30 this year, when deploying the "development of new quality productivity in accordance with local conditions", proposed "actively developing venture capital and strengthening patient capital". In June, the General Office of the State Council issued the "Several Policy Measures to Promote the High-Quality Development of Venture Capital", which proposed 17 policy measures around the entire chain of "raising funds, investing, managing and exiting" for venture capital, requiring increased policy support and guiding venture capital to give full play to the role of investing early, investing in small companies, and investing in hard technology.
"The continuous support of long-term patient capital and a good capital market ecology are the soil for the healthy survival of gazelle enterprises and unicorn enterprises." Li Jiaqing said that gazelle enterprises and unicorn enterprises need the long-term companionship and services of investment institutions in order to grow into the core force for developing new quality productivity.
With government guidance, diversified investment and market operation, more and more long-term capital and patient capital are injecting vitality into the development of gazelle and unicorn companies.
At the end of 2016, the China International Capital Corporation (CICC) Qiyuan National Emerging Industry Venture Capital Guidance Fund was jointly established by the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Finance, the Social Security Fund Council and social investors, and the fund raised 28.5 billion yuan. It became the first national fund in China that focuses on venture capital investment and direct investment in emerging industries, and is managed by a professional team of CICC. At present, the fund has invested in more than 160 leading venture capital funds and cultivated more than 170 unicorns (including listed companies) such as Ideal Auto, Hesai Technology, and Galaxy Power.
"We need to accelerate the construction of a science and technology financial service system that is highly compatible with the development of new quality productivity, and open up channels for converting social funds into patient capital and ensuring that it flows to scientific and technological enterprises." An Yuan, general manager of CICC Qiyuan Fund Management Co., Ltd., believes that to strengthen patient capital, we must focus on the country's major strategic layout, focus on the actual needs of industrial development, guide and promote long-term funds such as pension funds and corporate annuities to enter the venture capital market, and encourage early investment, small investment, long-term investment, and investment in hard technology.
In order to strengthen the financing support for start-up technology companies, in April this year, the People's Bank of China, together with the Ministry of Science and Technology and other departments, set up a 500 billion yuan re-loan for technological innovation and technological transformation, of which 100 billion yuan was specifically used to support the first loan of start-up and growth-stage technology-based SMEs, encouraging financial institutions to invest more in early, small, long-term, and hard technology. In June, the People's Bank of China and seven other departments jointly issued the "Work Plan on Doing a Solid Job in Science and Technology Finance", proposing to promote financial institutions and financial markets to comprehensively improve the ability, intensity and level of science and technology financial services, and provide full-chain and full-life cycle financial services for the science and technology innovation activities of various innovation entities.
"Banks and other financial institutions should make good use of financial technology and do a good job in science and technology finance." Dong Ximiao, chief researcher of China UnionPay, said that the banking industry should expand cooperation with securities, insurance, venture capital, guarantee, industrial park and other institutions, build a "circle of friends" and "ecosystem" for science and technology finance, strengthen the introduction of resources and comprehensive services for gazelle and unicorn enterprises, and provide science and technology enterprises with credit, investment, payment, risk control, consulting and other financial services.
