The Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China held a meeting on July 30th to analyze and study the current economic situation and deploy economic work for the second half of the year. The meeting pointed out the need to provide strong and effective support for the development of gazelle and unicorn enterprises. Unlike unicorn companies, gazelle companies are not well-known to the public. Generally speaking, the industry refers to high growth enterprises as "gazelle enterprises" because they share the same characteristics as "gazelles" - "small size, fast running, and high jumping". Such enterprises not only have a fast annual growth rate in performance, but often can also quickly achieve IPO (initial public offering). Liu Chen, a researcher at the Bank of China Research Institute, said that due to the characteristics of rapid growth, strong innovation ability, new professional fields, and great development potential of gazelle enterprises, they are usually considered the predecessors of unicorn enterprises. According to a report released by Hurun Research Institute, unicorn companies are non listed companies with a value of over 1 billion US dollars established after 2000. Gazelle Enterprises are the high growth companies most likely to reach a unicorn level valuation of $1 billion within three years, with valuations typically ranging from $500 million to $1 billion. Xia Qingying, an analyst at Wanlian Securities, stated that both gazelle and unicorn enterprises are typical representatives of new technologies, industries, formats, and models. Effectively supporting the development of gazelle and unicorn enterprises is an important lever for promoting the development of new quality productivity, cultivating and strengthening emerging and future industries. According to the Gazelle Cloud Database, as of the end of July 2024, there are over 35000 gazelle enterprises in China, covering 92 major industry categories, mainly concentrated in Beijing, Guangdong, and Shandong, mainly covering industries such as electronic information and new generation information technology. It is worth noting that in recent years, the number of new unicorn companies in China has decreased. According to the 2024 Global Unicorn List released by Hurun Research Institute, China ranked second with 340, an increase of 24, but added 74 in 2021. How to increase the number of unicorn companies has become a concern for the Chinese government. Analysis suggests that we should not only focus on unicorn companies, but also shift our attention to gazelle companies. In the view of Huang Runan, co chief macro analyst at Guotai Junan Research Institute, the Central Politburo meeting has for the first time explicitly supported Gazelle Enterprises. Compared with unicorn companies, gazelle companies are in a more advanced stage, indicating that policy support for emerging industries also emphasizes "starting from the front". In recent years, the development of Chinese gazelle enterprises still faces many problems. Taking financing as an example, Liu Chen pointed out that Chinese gazelle enterprises may still face financing problems at different stages of development. For example, in the mid stage of development, gazelle enterprises mainly face the contradiction between rapid expansion and mismatched financial support. Liu Chen analyzed that from the government's perspective, the financing support for gazelle enterprises is relatively single, and the venture capital of gazelle enterprises in high-tech zones mainly comes from government financial appropriations and technology loans from state-owned banks; From the perspective of commercial banks, the efficiency of financing support for gazelle enterprises needs to be improved; From the perspective of other financial institutions, the linkage effect between various financial institutions needs to be improved. Zhong Zhengsheng, Chief Economist of Ping An Securities, stated that the Central Political Bureau meeting specifically named and supported gazelle and unicorn companies at a high level. Subsequent policies may enhance their support for IPOs and investment and financing, in order to form a demonstration effect in supporting entrepreneurial venture capital. Li Chao, Chief Economist of Zheshang Securities, pointed out that the Central Politburo meeting proposed to strongly and effectively support the development of gazelle and unicorn enterprises. This is a manifestation of strengthening the dominant position of enterprises in technological innovation, and is expected to provide more support to enterprises in terms of research and development funding, innovative talents, and innovation platform construction. (New Society)