Accompanying through the cycle! Shanghai Bank becomes a key supporter for Wobi Medical

Produced by | China Visiting Network

Review | Li Xiaoyan

At a time when technological innovation has become a core driver of national competitiveness and new quality productive forces are accelerating, technology finance has already become the key lever for financial services to support the real economy. The Central Financial Work Conference places technology finance at the top of the “five major essays,” pointing the way for financial institutions to serve science and technology innovation (tech) enterprises. Shanghai Bank closely follows the national strategic deployments, and aligns with its development vision of “the preferred bank for converting and incubating, and the companion bank for startups as they grow,” moving beyond the traditional framework of financial services. By using innovative models to solve the development challenges faced by technology companies, the bank has recently, together with Yunfeng Fund, successfully supported a local high-end medical technology enterprise to complete cross-border strategic integration through a new coordinated model of “merger and acquisition loans + investment funds,” paving a new path for financial empowerment for cross-border development and global expansion of technology enterprises.

The path to growth for tech enterprises has always been marked by high investment, high risk, and long development cycles—especially at key junctures such as cross-border mergers and acquisitions and overseas expansion, where companies often face multiple difficulties including financing challenges, complex structures, and difficulty in risk controls. Traditional financial services rely too heavily on collateral and guarantees, making them hard to meet the needs of technology enterprises that are asset-light and research-intensive. Even many high-quality tech innovation enterprises, despite possessing core technologies, can easily get stuck at a development bottleneck amid industry fluctuations and capital winters. Shanghai Bank has a deep understanding of the growth rules of tech enterprises. It took the lead in breaking through constraints of traditional credit thinking, building a distinctive technology-finance service system. With a long-term mindset and professional services, it accompanies tech enterprises through their development cycles and addresses end-to-end financial challenges from startup incubation to large-scale expansion.

Wobei Medical, founded in 2015, is an innovative medical enterprise in China focused on stroke treatment technologies. It has deeply cultivated the field of neurointervention, and with core technologies it completed overseas market layout in Europe and the United States at an early stage, making it a typical representative of Chinese medical technology companies going global. As early as the early development stage of Wobei Medical, Shanghai Bank accurately identified its technological value and development potential, provided initial credit support, and witnessed the key growth stage as the company developed from startup beginnings to overseas expansion. Since 2023, the global medical device industry has seen valuation adjustments; the financing environment in capital markets has continued to tighten; combined with issues such as complex internal debt structures, Wobei Medical’s development has run into difficulties. Several financial institutions have cut back their credit limits, leaving the company under dual pressure from both its capital chain and its development strategy.

Faced with industry fluctuations and market uncertainty, Shanghai Bank did not choose to exit as a short-term safe-haven. Instead, it adhered to a long-term mindset, transforming into “patient capital” and firmly standing by enterprises to get through the tough times. Relying on in-depth research into the neurointervention track, as well as long-term monitoring and scenario analysis of Wobei Medical’s core technologies, overseas market competitiveness, and team operational capabilities, the bank decisively increased its credit support against the trend, becoming the No. 1 credit bank for the company during the industry downturn. In addition to providing basic funding support, Shanghai Bank also empowers enterprise development with “financial intelligence.” It assembled a professional team to help the company sort out and optimize its debt structure, proactively connected with all kinds of investors, shareholders, and management teams, building an efficient communication bridge. It provides comprehensive support for adjusting development strategy and building momentum for recovery, demonstrating through concrete actions the long-term commitment and responsibility of financial institutions toward tech enterprises.

As the capital markets gradually recover, the Hong Kong-listed biotech and biopharma sector has found a renewed opportunity for revival. Shanghai Bank is keenly aware of the turning point opportunity for Wobei Medical’s development. Together with Yunfeng Fund, a leading venture capital and investment institution, it innovatively built a coordinated service plan of “merger and acquisition loans + investment funds.” This successfully supported Apollos Medical and Wobei Medical to complete cross-border strategic integration. Meanwhile, it helped Wobei Medical complete debt restructuring and optimize its capital structure, removing a core obstacle for the company to sprint toward an overseas listing. This model differs from traditional funds conducting full-equity acquisitions. It fully leverages the bank’s low-cost credit leverage advantage and the venture capital institution’s strengths in industry resources. It effectively eases the company’s funding pressure, resolves the debt crisis, and—through structured deal design—keeps sufficient operating funds for the company, ensuring the steady advancement of its global strategy. It realizes efficient integration of financial capital and industrial capital.

The smooth delivery of this cross-border M&A and integration has been highly recognized by the company. Wobei Medical CEO Zhao Ruilin said that the comprehensive financial services under the bank–fund synergy not only strengthen the company’s financial foundation and solve long-term debt issues that have constrained development, but also provide solid protection for the company to expand production capacity and deepen its global market layout. In the future, the company will further expand the production scale of its Shanghai factory and bring China’s leading stroke treatment technologies to a broader global market, so that China’s medical technology achievements benefit more overseas patients.

The successful implementation of this cross-border M&A business is not only a successful case of Shanghai Bank serving a single tech innovation enterprise, but also marks a major upgrade of its technology-finance service model—from traditional, single credit disbursement to a full-ecosystem comprehensive empowerment approach as a “financial partner.” Shanghai Bank has always adhered to the concept of whole-cycle accompaniment. This M&A service is not the end of the cooperation, but the starting point for deeper, longer-term service. Going forward, the bank will rely on the FT account system’s unique advantages in cross-border fund settlement and exchange costs, helping Wobei Medical optimize global operating capital management and improve cross-border capital operation efficiency. At the same time, it will continue to deepen the synergy between investment and lending, providing end-to-end follow-up support for key processes such as the company’s subsequent financing and overseas IPO, offering one-stop financial support covering the entire lifecycle of enterprise development.

Building on this successful practice, Shanghai Bank will further replicate and promote the bank–fund synergy service model. Centered on the full lifecycle financial needs of venture capital funds to invest in and of the companies that receive investment, it will build a “fundraising-investment-management-exit+” end-to-end financial service ecosystem. By integrating the bank’s financial service advantages with venture capital institutions’ industrial resources and capital advantages, it will provide integrated comprehensive services such as financing, financial intelligence, resource matchmaking, and strategic planning for technology enterprises—breaking down service barriers between banks and venture capital institutions and forming a win-win pattern among the bank, the venture capital institution, and tech enterprises.

Today, the virtuous cycle of “technology–industry–finance” is the core driving force for promoting high-quality economic development. Shanghai Bank uses innovative financial services as the link to precisely match the development needs of technology enterprises, tackle the challenges of cross-border development, and this is both a concrete practice of implementing the policy requirements to improve overseas financial service systems and help companies go global, and also a responsibility for cultivating new quality productive forces and promoting upgrades in technology industries. In the future, Shanghai Bank will continue to uphold a long-term mindset and professionalism, further deepen innovations in technology finance, and focus on serving “early-stage, small-scale, and hard-tech” tech enterprises. With more flexible, more efficient, and more comprehensive financial services, it will accompany more Chinese technology enterprises in leapfrogging development from 0 to 100, helping high-quality tech innovation strength sail out to global markets and injecting a steady stream of financial momentum into the building of a strong country in technology.

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