Chinese tech firms are stepping up listing preparations for a new board in Shanghai as the upcoming new financing channel for promising, money-hungry startups started to accept applications Monday.

A total of 11 firms announced plans for listing on the science and technology innovation board to be launched on the Shanghai Stock Exchange (SSE), China Securities News reported Monday.

Six of them, currently traded on over-the-counter markets or other exchanges, unveiled the decisions to enter the new board in their statements, while the other five released their plans in documents on initial public offerings (IPOs).

All the firms were in strategically emerging industries, including bio-medicine, high-end equipment manufacturing, software and new material, according to the newspaper.

Some boast high profitability, even better than their peers listed on the main board of Chinese A shares. Shanghai Fudan-Zhangjiang Bio-Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd., a bio-medicine producer, doubled its profit in 2018 to 151 million yuan (about 22.51 million U.S. dollars), while Jiangxi JDL Environmental Protection Co. Ltd., which specializes in sewage treatment technology, has maintained an around-60-percent gross profit rate for three consecutive years.

The application review system of the board has started operation and brokers can submitted IPO documents via the SSE website.

In a meeting Saturday, the SSE reported preparation progress in the launch of the new board, including stock issues, reviews and supervision, and stressed that risk control should be the first priority.

Proposed in November 2018 and approved in January, the new board on the SSE will experiment with registration-based IPOs, adopt eased listing standards, such as relaxed profit requirements, and focus on high-tech and strategically emerging sectors.

Yi Huiman, head of the China Securities Regulatory Commission, said the establishment of the new board was of great significance in promoting technological innovation, high-quality development of the economy and market-oriented reform of the capital market.