Core Insights - The report from CCID Consulting focuses on the financing difficulties faced by startups in China, analyzing their characteristics, current financing landscape, causes of difficulties, and policy recommendations. Group 1: Startup Characteristics and Internal Financing Challenges - Startups exhibit five core characteristics: lack of collateral due to light asset operations, unstable business models leading to income fluctuations, absence of long-term credit records, high operational risks with low risk tolerance, and insufficient cash flow requiring long-term funding [1][10][11]. - These characteristics lead to four major financing challenges: traditional financing channels are generally inaccessible due to high thresholds; financing costs are high, resulting in equity dilution and high-interest debt; short financing cycles do not match the long-term funding needs of startups; and startups are vulnerable to market cycle fluctuations and policy adjustments, as seen in the significant decline in financing scale from 2021 to 2023 due to global venture capital tightening [1][13][15]. Group 2: Current Financing Market Status and Structural Changes - The current financing landscape for startups shows five trends: the primary market experienced a peak in 2021 followed by a decline over two consecutive years; investment is shifting towards later stages, with early-stage investments decreasing; VC/PE investment enthusiasm has waned, while government-guided funds are gaining influence but face efficiency issues; bank loans for small and micro enterprises are increasing, yet the approval rate for startup loans is only 22.8%; and while the Sci-Tech Innovation Board and Beijing Stock Exchange have expanded, most listed companies are mature, with only 15.6% being under five years old [2][20][21][22]. Group 3: Multi-Dimensional Causes of Financing Difficulties - From the investor's perspective, state-owned investment institutions are constrained by asset assessment mechanisms, leading to low risk tolerance and administrative decision-making, resulting in insufficient participation in early-stage projects; private and foreign institutions tend to rely on benchmarking, underestimating local innovations, and face blind spots in hard technology investments, causing an imbalance in resource allocation [3][26][28]. - From the internal perspective of startups, conflicts between technology confidentiality and capital transparency lead to information governance imbalances, with some companies resorting to financial fraud to meet capital expectations, exacerbating market trust crises; founders' concerns over control lead to distorted financing strategies, threatening the survival of the enterprise [3][31][35]. Group 4: Systematic Policy Recommendations - The report proposes three major reform directions: reforming the state-owned investment mechanism to enhance risk tolerance and support capabilities for startups; establishing a credit financing system for technology-based enterprises by integrating innovation data and improving risk guarantee models; and promoting supply chain financial innovations to strengthen financing capabilities within the industry chain [4][8][9].