Capital's living water nurtures future industries

Recently, the Shanghai Stock Exchange officially accepted the IPO application of Unitree Technology Co., Ltd. for its first public offering of shares on the STAR Market. As the second filing company after the implementation of the pre-review mechanism for STAR Market IPOs, Unitree Technology’s journey to listing is not only a crucial step for the company itself to achieve capitalization and accelerate growth, but also reflects the capital market’s high level of attention and precise support for future industries such as embodied intelligence.

From its stunning appearance in the Year of the Snake Spring Festival Gala performance “YangBOT,” to its brilliant rendition in the Year of the Horse Spring Festival Gala performance “WuBOT,” Unitree Technology demonstrates the motion capabilities and development potential of humanoid robots to the public through concrete product presentation, while also showcasing the company’s strong capabilities in rapid product iteration and performance breakthroughs. With solid technical strength, Unitree Technology’s products have been widely used by many research institutions and technology companies around the world for cutting-edge R&D; for many years, sales of humanoid and quadruped robots have ranked among the top globally.

By aligning with the STAR Market and as the second company to apply under the IPO pre-review mechanism, the significance of Unitree Technology goes far beyond the company itself, fully reflecting the important role of institutional innovation in serving technological innovation. In June last year, the STAR Market piloted the IPO pre-review mechanism, mainly targeting technology-based companies that undertake key core technology breakthroughs or meet other specific circumstances, to avoid major adverse effects on production and operations that could arise from companies disclosing business and technical information and listing plans too early. The application of this mechanism enables companies to focus on R&D without distractions and tackle technical difficulties, while also building a convenient channel to connect with the capital market and achieve rapid growth.

In recent years, the supply of capital market systems has continued to be optimized and upgraded, with increasing inclusiveness and fit, guiding capital to flow accurately and efficiently to the areas of technological innovation that need the most support. Taking the STAR Market as an example, the “eight rules” for the STAR Market and the “1+6” reform of the STAR Market were rolled out in succession, continuously strengthening institutional innovation and service effectiveness, driving a group of “hard technology” companies that achieved breakthroughs in key core technology fields to accelerate their concentration, and forming a sound pattern of bidirectional empowerment between technological innovation and the capital market with a virtuous cycle. Unitree Technology’s push for the STAR Market not only allows it to rely on capital market empowerment to accelerate key technology R&D, capacity release, and scene deployment, but will also further optimize the capital market’s asset structure, demonstrating and encouraging more companies that master core technologies and have innovation vitality to grow rapidly.

The 2024 Government Work Report has clearly stated that we will cultivate and develop future industries such as future energy, quantum technology, embodied intelligence, brain-computer interfaces, and 6G. Future industries generally have characteristics such as high technological content, large R&D investment, long cultivation cycles, and strong uncertainty in development. Their technical breakthroughs and industrialization breakthroughs often require long-term stable funding support and risk sharing; relying solely on companies’ own accumulation makes it difficult to achieve rapid breakthroughs and scaled development. Therefore, accelerating the cultivation and growth of future industries is inseparable from the strong support of the capital market as a key hub.

To fully leverage the “nourishing” role of the capital market for future industries, it is still necessary to continue deepening institutional innovation and optimizing policy supply. On the one hand, efforts should continue to explore more inclusive support mechanisms, improve institutional arrangements such as issuance and listing, mergers and reorganizations, and refinancing that better align with the development rules of future industries, while adhering to strict regulation in accordance with the law to balance market compliance and innovation vitality. On the other hand, efforts should focus on nurturing patient capital by widening diversified exit channels and promoting the trial of regularizing fund share transfer business, among other measures, to guide insurance funds, industrial capital, and others to increase their allocation to future industries through private equity investment, providing fresh funding at the source for industry startup and early-stage technology R&D, improving a full life-cycle capital support service system, and helping more science and technology innovation (Sci-Tech) enterprises accelerate from “seedlings” into “majestic trees” that lead industry development. (Source of this article: Economic Daily, author: Ma Chunyang)