HSBC has launched a $290 million lending facility aimed at technology start-ups and other new industries in China's Pearl River Delta region, intensifying the battle for a slice of a business that is growing despite a slowing economy. Showered with money from private investors over the last few years, the promising technology start-ups in China, the world's second-largest economy, have shunned traditional lenders, seeking to instead raise funds directly from equity investors. As a result, banks such as HSBC and Citigroup, as well as a host of Chinese lenders, are now courting the emerging Chinese firms by offering loans and other banking services.