With the rise of digital finance, improving financial services through advanced technologies such as the Internet and big data has gradually become a key factor in optimizing the financing efficiency of small and mediumsized enterprises (SMEs). This paper analyzes the impact of digital finance development on the financing efficiency of Chinese SMEs through a two-stage network DEA model. The study selected the financial data of 200 SMEs during the period of 2020-2024, and used input indicators such as labor costs, fixed assets, and financial expenses, intermediate indicators such as equity financing amount and debt financing amount, and output indicators such as operating income and investment income. The results show that the financing efficiency of SMEs is generally low during the period of 2020-2024, among which the financing efficiency is the highest in 2022, and the pure technical efficiency reaches 0.823, which indicates that the management and technical level of the enterprise has improved in that year. Further regression analysis shows that the digital finance index (DFI) is significantly positively correlated with enterprise financing efficiency, indicating that the development of digital finance can significantly improve the financing efficiency of SMEs. Specifically, the breadth of coverage, depth of use and degree of digitization of digital finance all have a positive effect on the improvement of financing efficiency, especially the depth of use has the greatest impact. It is concluded that digital finance significantly contributes to the improvement of SMEs’ financing efficiency by reducing financing costs and improving the efficiency of capital utilization.
