Why Shanghai has become an important habitat for "unicorns"
2024-08-18
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Shanghai has become an important habitat for high-growth companies represented by "unicorns". The number of unicorn companies ranks first in China and even in the world. The total number of new unicorn companies born out of gazelle companies has ranked first in the country for three consecutive years. This is inseparable from the innovation and development of enterprises, and also benefits from the efforts made by relevant departments in the city to serve enterprises. In addition to continuously optimizing the business environment and cultivating an innovative ecosystem, Shanghai has also drawn out a service system that is precisely oriented to the past, present and future of "unicorns" through a study, a report, and a list, bringing together resources and attention from various departments and aspects to help companies leap over the ditches on the road ahead and fully unleash their explosive development potential.
List
Since the concept of "unicorn" was born, emerging high-growth enterprises are becoming a benchmark for measuring regional innovation capabilities. An authoritative report shows that Shanghai currently has 156 key unicorn companies, with a total valuation (market value) of about 1.35 trillion yuan by the end of last year. From the perspective of industry distribution, they are very consistent with Shanghai's layout of building a modern industrial system. They are the key force in building a new growth engine, and they are also the integrators and pioneers of innovation.
The above findings come from the "Shanghai Key Service Unicorn and Potential Enterprise Development Report", which was jointly launched by the Municipal Small and Medium Enterprise Development Service Center and Great Wall Strategic Consulting under the guidance of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology's Small and Medium Enterprise Development Promotion Center and the Municipal Economic and Information Commission. It has been released continuously for the past two years. This is also the first unicorn list in China released by a government platform and anchored by services. Due to its pioneering and leading nature, it has received attention and recognition from all walks of life.
According to the report, the 156 unicorn companies that Shanghai focuses on serving are in a gradient pattern, with 22 listed unicorn companies with an average market value of 17.1 billion yuan; 56 unicorn companies with an average valuation of 12.4 billion yuan; and 78 unicorn potential companies with an average valuation of 3.6 billion yuan. More than half of the companies belong to the three leading industries, the proportion of companies in the four new tracks is as high as 73.7%, and the proportion of "unicorns" appearing in the five future industries also exceeds 20%. In addition, 80% of companies have an R&D funding intensity of more than 10%, 70% of companies have R&D personnel accounting for more than 30%, and each company has an average of 66 patents, showing a strong innovative attribute.
Based on data from Great Wall Strategic Consulting and other industry reports, Shanghai is recognized as the city with the strongest momentum in the development of unicorn companies in China. Over the past eight years, the number of unicorn companies in the city has continued to grow rapidly. In the past three years, the number of newly-established unicorn companies has remained the highest in the country, and the total number ranks second in the country and fourth in the world.
This report provides a rare perspective for observing the "unicorn" group. It not only gathers data, but also pays more attention to enterprises. Through this work, Shanghai is trying to answer an important question: how to make further contributions to allow "unicorns" to emerge and grow continuously.
Opportunity
For Shanghai's unicorn and gazelle enterprises, the Municipal Enterprise Service Center is a "shop assistant" who responds to requests and a "family member" with whom one can confide. The original intention of compiling the above-mentioned "Report" is to highlight the keyword "service". Wei Bingwu, director of the center, told reporters that the "unicorn" group has active innovation activities, but there are still many shortcomings in qualifications and strength. In terms of financing, innovation, brand, talent, etc., they are very eager for government departments to build a platform to help them get the corresponding resources and opportunities.
In fact, Shanghai has always had outstanding performance in supporting similar scientific and technological enterprises. In particular, as the birthplace of "specialized, sophisticated, and innovative" enterprises, the city has taken the lead in strengthening the supply of factors for this group in the country over the past 10 years, with positive results. However, services for "specialized, sophisticated, and innovative" enterprises cannot accurately match the characteristics of unicorn enterprises. In Wei Bingwu's view, if specialized, sophisticated, and innovative "little giants" enterprises are regarded as being admitted to first-class universities, then unicorn enterprises are more like young and talented junior college students.
For example, as commercial banks have launched special loan products for "specialized, sophisticated, and innovative companies", the financing difficulties of related companies have been alleviated to a large extent. In comparison, although the valuation of "unicorns" is high, they are mainly intangible assets, and it is difficult for them to provide sufficient collateral when taking out loans like "specialized, sophisticated, and innovative companies". Therefore, the financing services for them cannot copy the "specialized, sophisticated, and innovative" model.
In addition, "unicorns" generally grow very fast and sometimes suddenly appear. For this reason, the government also hopes to think ahead and form a virtuous cycle of early identification, early service, and early outbreak for potential enterprises and gazelle enterprises.
Therefore, this report becomes a starting point. In the early stage of communicating, investigating and “portraying” unicorn companies, Shanghai proposed a unique classification and evaluation standard for the first time, breaking away from traditional definitions such as “established within 10 years”, “valued at more than US$1 billion” and “unlisted”, and extending government services to both ends, including listed unicorn companies and unicorn potential companies whose valuations have not yet reached the standards, thus highlighting the “full life cycle” concept and focusing on and cultivating high-growth companies today and in the future.
Serve
The distinctive characteristics of "unicorns" determine that more professional services should be provided for their growth. In addition to inclusive work such as business environment reform and innovation ecosystem construction, Shanghai also provides "small pot dishes" style customized service packages for the "unicorn" group, and the listed companies naturally become the key service targets of various departments.
In the past two years, while releasing the "Report", Shanghai simultaneously launched the "Service Menu", from the 1.0 version of the menu covering policy interpretation, financing services, talent services and other contents, to the 2.0 version upgrade completed this year, the number of participating institutions increased to 70, and the service content increased to 220 items. At the same time, relying on the Shanghai Enterprise Service Cloud, 20 units including the Municipal Enterprise Service Center, the Municipal Employment Promotion Center, the Municipal Talent Service Center, and the Municipal Science and Technology Entrepreneurship Center have formed a public service alliance to jointly launch exclusive services for unicorn companies and open a green channel so that they can find the right person in time when they encounter problems.
It is worth mentioning that this year, the Municipal Enterprise Service Center also signed strategic agreements with 12 banks including Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, Agricultural Bank of China, Bank of China, China Construction Bank, Bank of Communications, CITIC Bank, Everbright Bank, and Shanghai Pudong Development Bank, to jointly explore and create exclusive financial services for "unicorns" to inject momentum and confidence into corporate development. Interestingly, two listed companies - Inceptio Technology in the autonomous driving industry and Wobi Medical in the biopharmaceutical industry - received support from multiple banks immediately after the release of the "Report" and subsequently completed financing of tens of millions of yuan.
Wei Bingwu said that the recent meeting of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee 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 it also makes service agencies like them excited. According to the central decision-making and deployment, they will further focus on the direction of "powerful" and "effective", according to the demands of enterprises, further link resources from all walks of life, improve the service menu, enrich cooperation agencies, improve service efficiency, and strive to enhance the sense of gain of enterprises.
Author: Zhang Yi
Text: Zhang Yi Photo: Xing Qianli Editor: Fu Lu
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