Recently, patient capital has accelerated its layout in future industries such as quantum technology and embodied intelligence, and the scientific and technological innovation financial pattern of "early investment, small investment, long-term investment, and hard technology investment" is expected to accelerate its formation.
Market participants expect that with the continuous improvement of the "1+N+X" policy and institutional system in the private equity fund field, and the continuous optimization of long-term investment assessment and fault tolerance mechanisms, patient capital will accelerate the smooth flow of the "technology industry finance" virtuous cycle, providing lasting impetus for hard technology enterprises to overcome cycles and achieve breakthroughs in industrialization.
Deeply cultivating the clear pattern of scientific and technological innovation
Since the beginning of this year, investors such as the National Social Security Fund Council have been active, and the activity of the domestic equity investment market has continued to rise. The pattern of long-term funds deeply cultivating science and technology innovation has become increasingly clear.
As a representative of patient capital, the National Social Security Fund Council continues to adhere to the long-term investment concept, deeply cultivates cutting-edge hard core technology fields, and actively plans long-term, high-value future industries. Recently, Hefei Yaozheng Quantum Technology Co., Ltd. completed hundreds of millions of yuan in Series A financing. This round of financing is led by Shenzhen Venture Capital, jointly invested by the Social Security Fund Bay Area Technology Innovation Equity Investment Fund (Shenzhen) Partnership Enterprise (Limited Partnership) and Shenzhen Innovation Capital Investment Co., Ltd., and co invested by well-known institutions such as Guangfa Xinde.
In recent years, the National Social Security Fund Council has played an increasingly important role in serving the construction of a strong technological country and assisting the growth of science and technology innovation enterprises. On June 17th, the Shaanxi Social Security Science and Technology Innovation Fund signed a contract. This fund is a market-oriented fund that serves the national strategy and high-quality development of Shaanxi's economy. It was jointly initiated and established by Shaanxi Province, the National Social Security Fund Council, and Bank of China, with an initial scale of 10 billion yuan. The fund will efficiently collaborate with diversified social capital such as venture capital institutions, financial institutions, and industrial capital, with a focus on investing in Shaanxi's characteristic advantageous industries, emerging industries, and future industries. Previously, the National Social Security Fund Council stated that it will increase investment in industries to support the integrated development of scientific and technological innovation and industrial innovation through more effective investment operations, more efficient resource allocation, and higher quality funding supply.
Multiple sources of capital continue to pour in, driving a significant increase in the size of the equity investment market, with the hard technology track becoming the core growth engine.
The latest data released by Qingke Research Center shows that in the first half of the year, the number and amount of investment cases in China's equity investment market maintained a growth trend, with a total of 5944 investment cases completed in the entire market, an increase of 14.7% year-on-year; The disclosed investment amount is approximately 565.4 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 31.9%. The average investment amount of cases with disclosed investment scale was 136 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 51.6%. Among them, large-scale financing has been frequent in multiple fields of science and technology innovation, such as big models, physics AI, and aerospace, significantly driving the growth of investment scale. The institution expects that "investing early, investing small, investing long-term, and investing in hard technology" will still be the main focus of the equity investment market.
The institutional system is constantly improving
Patient capital deeply cultivates hard technology and empowers new quality productivity, which cannot be separated from a sound institutional system to provide protection.
From a national perspective, relevant departments continue to strengthen top-level design and introduce guiding policies to solidify the foundation of industry development. For example, the Guiding Opinions of the General Office of the State Council on Strengthening Supervision and Preventing Risks to Promote the High quality Development of Private Investment Funds, released in June, proposed to broaden the sources of funds for private equity funds and venture capital funds through multiple channels, cultivate and develop patient capital from multiple dimensions, and promote the deep integration of patient capital and technological innovation.
Professor Xu Ming from the School of International Finance Law at East China University of Political Science and Law believes that the guidance is more clear, focusing on technological innovation and the real economy, encouraging "early investment, small investment, long-term investment, and hard technology investment", and resolutely preventing capital from shifting from real to virtual and chaos such as "real stocks and bonds". The industry should focus on transformation, upgrading, and improving quality and efficiency, closely follow the national policy mainline, deeply cultivate new quality productivity and physical science and technology innovation tracks, and clarify the key investment directions.
At the local level, local governments have introduced supporting measures tailored to local conditions, created a distinctive science and technology innovation financial ecosystem, and made every effort to cultivate local patient capital. For example, the recent opinions released by Zhejiang on building a first-class innovation ecosystem and creating the most competitive business environment clearly state the implementation of the "Creating Patient Capital" special action, the establishment and improvement of a market-oriented operation mechanism for social security science and technology innovation funds, the strengthening of the leverage role of industrial funds, and the guidance of financial capital to "invest early, invest small, invest long-term, and invest in hard technology".
The recently issued Implementation Plan for Promoting Capacity Expansion and Quality Improvement of the Service Industry in Guangdong Province proposes to develop diversified equity investments, fully leverage the role of government investment guidance funds, deepen cooperation with domestic and foreign fund management institutions, improve supporting policies for venture capital, and cultivate and strengthen patient capital.
Chen Li, a member of the China Chief Economist Forum, believes that the R&D cycle of science and technology innovation is long and uncertain, making it difficult for short-term profit seeking capital to form effective support. Building a science and technology innovation financial ecosystem with government funds as a lever precisely fills the most critical financing gap for early technology enterprises. With the gradual implementation of relevant supporting regulations, the path of regional differentiation will become clearer, and many regions are expected to further improve long-term investment assessment and fault tolerance mechanisms.
Building a sustainable and benign ecosystem
With the continuous improvement of the institutional system, market mechanisms will continue to be optimized, and the efficiency of scientific and technological innovation capital circulation will continue to improve. Market participants believe that in the long run, long-term support should be provided for the cultivation of new quality productivity. It is necessary to cultivate and strengthen patient capital, open up the entire chain of "fundraising, investment, management, and withdrawal", and build a benign ecology of "fundraising with broad sources, investment with direction, management with standards, and withdrawal with a way out".
On the fundraising side, we should continue to expand the source of fresh water and consolidate the foundation of patient capital reserves. Tian Xuan, Dean of Guanghua School of Management at Peking University, suggested actively guiding long-term funds such as pension funds and insurance funds to invest in science and technology innovation enterprises, and improving the assessment and responsibility constraint mechanism for fund managers. Guide venture capital institutions with sufficient funds and rich investment experience to increase their support for strategic emerging industries, with a focus on science and technology innovation fields such as pharmaceuticals that are difficult to innovate, have long research and development cycles, and high investment costs. At the same time, industry leaders are encouraged to establish venture capital departments, rely on their own industry experience and resource advantages, cultivate technological innovation capabilities in the upstream and downstream of the industrial chain, and build a strong industrial technology synergy link.
On the investment side, we should adhere to classified policies, precise layout, and adapt to the full life cycle development needs of enterprises. Liu Jianjun, Dean of the Equity and Venture Capital Research Institute at Hunan University, believes that seed stage enterprises with low social capital participation should be directly invested by government funds. For start-up enterprises that have entered the initial stage, it is advisable for the government to cooperate with market institutions to establish funds and entrust market institutions to manage them. To guide the early investment of funds, the government should establish an incentive mechanism of "benefiting the people". For mid to late stage enterprises facing difficulties in fundraising, it is recommended to establish a "fundraising support type government fund" appropriately.
At the exit end, multiple channels should be continuously opened up to activate the vitality of patient capital circulation. Founder of LP Investment Advisory, Guoli Bo, stated that regulatory authorities are actively seeking to improve diversified exit paths such as IPOs and mergers and acquisitions, enhance liquidity and returns in the venture capital industry, and boost confidence in long-term capital deployment. Regulatory authorities should further optimize the mechanism for forming merger and acquisition prices, making mergers and acquisitions a truly efficient and fair exit channel, exploring asset package portfolio exit paths, and providing institutional guarantees for patient capital circulation and reinvestment.