"Intellectual Property" Becomes "Assets": Decoding Jiangsu Bank Shenzhen Branch's "Smart Financing" Upgrade Path

A corporate profile scorecard and a five-dimensional innovation evaluation model—Jiangsu Bank’s Shenzhen Branch is using data to reconstruct the credit value of tech companies.

Under the strategic guidance of the Central Financial Work Conference to “do a good job in science and technology finance,” how financial services can precisely support technological innovation has become a key challenge. Jiangsu Bank’s Shenzhen Branch, as a financial institution deeply rooted in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area’s innovation hub, has explored and iterated over ten years. Using the new model of “Smart Finance + Tech Innovation Finance,” it is establishing a collaborative mechanism for a tech innovation financial service alliance to help companies develop through technological innovation.

System Upgrade: Ecosystem Collaboration of “Equity, Loan, Bond, Insurance, Guarantee” Linkages

It is understood that Jiangsu Bank’s Shenzhen Branch began exploring “investment-loan linkage” in tech finance as early as 2015, focusing on cooperation with external investment institutions to share the dividends of tech startup growth through “equity option rights.”

In recent years, with continuous product iteration, the bank has fully upgraded and launched the new “Smart Finance - Tech Innovation Finance” model. Its core is to build an ecosystem of multi-party linkage and relay services involving “equity, loan, bond, insurance, and guarantee.”

This upgrade is first reflected in the enrichment and coordination of the product matrix.

“Fusion Loan,” as the core product of equity-debt linkage, has formed a systematic operation. The bank has established a dynamic “whitelist” of leading investment institutions to precisely target high-quality invested tech startups.

In client assessment, an innovative online “scorecard” is used to create a comprehensive profile of companies based on four dimensions: technological innovation capability, external recognition, debt self-repayment ability, and operational capacity. The evaluation is tailored with different indicator weights depending on whether the company is in the startup, growth, or mature stage, making assessments more aligned with actual conditions.

Internally, a risk tolerance mechanism has been introduced to strengthen due diligence and liability exemption, along with performance assessments and innovation rewards to motivate front-office collaborative marketing.

To date, this product has cumulatively invested over 1 billion yuan, with significant results in serving high-quality tech startups and leading investment institutions.

“Equity Option Loan” provides loans to high-growth tech startups while exploring more flexible service pathways. The bank collaborates with venture capital firms and Suzhou Bank’s wealth management subsidiaries to improve the “credit + option rights” and “loan + internal direct investment” models.

The core value of this model lies in providing urgently needed debt capital to companies while, through attached equity option rights, helping tech firms avoid early and rapid equity dilution, meeting their real needs for “deleveraging” and “cost reduction.”

For banks, future exercise of these options could generate equity premium returns, offsetting higher credit risks and achieving sustainable business development.

For example, a tech startup focused on in-vehicle display controls, with substantial R&D investment, was supported with a tailored 10 million yuan credit line with attached equity options after understanding its equity financing plan.

The detailed design included valuation, exercise methods, and other factors, and this business was included in a special tech asset package, with an additional 35 basis points interest rate discount, achieving “low-cost financing + long-term return locking.” Currently, this model has been implemented in 10 cases.

For earlier-stage startups, the bank has iterated and launched “Venture Capital e-Loan.” This product uses a “venture capital database” + “enterprise database” dual-database model, focusing on companies invested in by well-known venture capital firms, with risk-sharing through guarantee companies.

Its biggest innovation is that credit approval does not rely on traditional financial statements but on a new “five-dimensional evaluation system,” scoring from aspects such as team members, innovation capability, industry prospects, etc., with an online layered process providing up to 3 million yuan in credit.

This marks a shift from service focus on “operational history” to “innovation potential.”

The higher-level system upgrade involves ecosystem construction. Jiangsu Bank’s head office has partnered with Jiangsu High-tech Investment, Provincial Credit Guarantee, Provincial Stock Exchange Center, and other provincial platforms to jointly develop an “Innovation Alliance” online platform, aiming to realize online coordination of “equity, loan, bond, insurance, and investment” services and data, forming a diversified, relay-based financial support loop covering the entire enterprise lifecycle.

Risk Control Upgrade: Data-Driven “Smart” Empowerment

A major pain point for traditional banks serving tech companies is “not understanding the technology” and “not accurately assessing value,” overly relying on collateral and past financial data, which often excludes core technology firms in the early stages of development.

The “Smart Finance” concept’s key is to solve this problem through digital transformation, introducing diverse data sources, and building a more accurate evaluation model reflecting the true value of tech startups.

A representative practice is the cooperation with “Zhihuiya,” a leading global SaaS provider of technological innovation intelligence. By integrating deep data on patents, technology tracks, R&D teams, and more, Jiangsu Bank breaks the traditional “financial report-only” risk control framework, systematically transforming intangible assets like intellectual property into assessable and priced “credit assets.”

Zhihuiya’s technology innovation ratings are directly used in client screening and credit decision-making. For example, a filter manufacturer certified for automotive standards, a supplier for Apple and Xiaomi, received a high AA rating from Zhihuiya.

Despite not standing out in traditional financial metrics, its strong innovation credentials allowed Jiangsu Bank to quickly provide a 10 million yuan credit line through the “Smart Finance” product, turning “intellectual property” into “assets” efficiently. This data-driven risk control upgrade has been systematically embedded into the product.

The “Venture Capital e-Loan” uses the “five-dimensional evaluation model,” which combines policy support, industry track, backing from investment institutions, team strength, and innovation achievements into a comprehensive assessment tool.

The system displays individual company scores, regional rankings, and automatically matches credit limits based on scores. This aligns marketing and risk control standards, providing relationship managers with clear, actionable evaluation criteria for high-growth, high-risk tech companies, addressing the bank’s professional gaps in “technology recognition.”

From offline manual judgment to online model scoring, from reliance on historical financial data to emphasis on future innovation potential, the “smart” upgrade of risk control logic is the fundamental guarantee that the “Smart Finance” model can accurately reach and serve the tech innovation customer base that traditional finance finds hard to cover.

Balanced Upgrade: The “Patience Capital” Logic of Revenue Sharing

Tech companies, especially early-stage ones, are characterized by high risk and high growth. Traditional credit models seek stable interest income and certain risk compensation, which are inherently at odds with the risk profile of tech startups.

Another profound upgrade of Jiangsu Bank’s “Smart Finance” model is the reconfiguration of risk-reward sharing mechanisms between the bank and tech companies through financial tools and innovative modes, guiding financial resources to act as “patience capital” to accompany enterprise growth.

The “investment-loan linkage” model is at the heart of this balancing act. It no longer limits the bank’s role to a creditor but allows it, through option rights, to become a potential shareholder in the company’s growth.

When the bank provides credit loans and bears risks higher than traditional enterprises, its risk premium is no longer solely based on higher current interest rates but is partly transferred to the expectation of future equity appreciation.

This enables the bank to offer more favorable loan rates today. The balance of “cost reduction now + future gains” precisely matches the financial needs of tech companies that are asset-light, high-investment, and eager to grow, giving the bank’s tech finance services sustainable internal motivation.

For early-stage startups, the “Venture Capital e-Loan” and risk-sharing with guarantee agencies, along with credit approval based solely on innovation capability, embody the bank’s patience in bearing higher risks and supporting companies through their critical growth phases.

The product explicitly states it “does not rely on operational metrics” but values the professional judgment of investment institutions and the company’s innovation core. This aligns with the central financial work conference’s call for “long-term capital” and “patience capital,” channeling financial resources to the frontlines of technological innovation and the most needed areas.

From passive risk compensation to active revenue sharing, from short-term safety pursuit to long-term companionship, the “Smart Finance” model’s upgrade reflects a profound shift in banking philosophy and service logic, aiming to create a virtuous cycle of “technology-industry-finance.”

Text: Liu Changyuan Typesetting: Chen Xin, Deng Shijun, Huang Yongwen Promotion