The first working day after the Spring Festival, Yashu Information Technology (Shanghai) Co received a 10 million yuan ($1.45 million) loan secured by its trade secrets on Feb 24, marking Shanghai's first completed trade secret pledge financing case.
The company became the first in Shanghai's internet security service sector to secure financing by pledging trade secrets, opening a new channel for intellectual property-based lending and supporting innovation-driven growth.
Trade secrets are technical or business information that is unknown to the public, commercially valuable, and protected by confidentiality measures. Yashu's key assets include algorithm models, security architecture designs, system engineering methodologies, and data capabilities accumulated over years of operation.
Previously, such assets were difficult to use as collateral. Intangible property was difficult to transfer or control, and valuing and confirming rights posed challenges for regulators and banks.
In Xuhui district, authorities leveraged China's Civil Code and Anti-Unfair Competition Law. Certain trade secrets were registered as data product intellectual property under Shanghai's interim measures, confirming rights without disclosing confidential content.
Following regulatory guidance, the Shanghai Xuhui Sub-branch of the Agricultural Bank of China partnered with the Shanghai pilot platform of the National Intellectual Property Operation Public Service Platform International Operation to carry out the valuation and issue a 10 million yuan revolving loan.
Yashu plans to invest roughly 20 percent of annual revenue in research and development, using the funds to upgrade algorithms, advance product engineering, optimize platform architecture, and recruit high-level technical talent, reinforcing Shanghai's innovation ecosystem.
