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Real Star Umbrella: An Umbrella That Opens for the World

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YIWU, China, Nov. 2, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — Yiwugo.com, the official website of the Yiwu Commodity Market, is the largest commodity wholesale market in the world. According to statistics from Yiwugo, “umbrella” is one of the most popular categories on Yiwu’s market, ranking within the top 20 search keywords on the platform as of October 2024. Real Star Umbrella, a market leader both of this industry and on Yiwugo, has gained renewed vitality with the addition of fresh talent.

With a legacy of three generations and a commitment spanning half a century, Ms Zhang Jiayuan, the inheritor of Real Star Umbrella, is bringing fresh perspectives to the company by assisting her mother with daily business operations, infusing the shop with a unique new energy.

Starting from her grandparents, Real Star rose to prominence from the Umbrella City in Shangyu, Shaoxing, and has long engaged in international trade. Its products are now popular across Spain, Germany, Dubai, South America, and Asia. Ms. Zhang Jiying, Jiayuan’s mother and the previous owner, transformed Real Star into a leading enterprise in Yiwu’s umbrella market and was among the first to embrace e-commerce in the region.

As the daughter stepped into the business, new e-commerce models like livestreaming surged, the domestic market gained momentum, and brand-oriented strategies became essential. She started exploring a branding path by strengthening the company’s unique style, enhancing fashionability of its products, and establishing an ingenious brand image.

To meet the high demands for fast product updates, high design expectations, and strong acceptance of premium products in the Chinese market, Real Star has collaborated with various independent illustrators in the country, in addition to its “RS” (Real Star) brand registered in over 100 countries and regions. It also recruits fresh visual arts graduates annually to maintain an active, original design team that participates in various domestic and international competitions, using these opportunities to showcase its brand to global buyers while learning from other industry experts. Additionally, the company has integrated the personal image of its owner, into product design as a fusion of company and personal branding, which has significantly strengthened its impression among both domestic and international clients, forming a unique and sustainable brand style and company culture.

Real Star umbrellas are not only highly original, with a considerable speed of new product release, but also feature targeted theme designs catering to the preferences of different cultural elements. In the Chinese market, designs reflect a love for national and traditional culture, while in the international market, there is a range of regional styles. The design team’s attention to umbrella cases and packaging helps position their umbrellas as not only a functional item but also a gift and cultural creative product, attracting orders from well-known brands and cultural organizations. In a matter of years, Real Star has transitioned from a purely export-driven enterprise to one with balanced growth, with about 30% of sales now in the domestic market.

Two years ago, influenced by the trend of Dunhuang-inspired art, Real Star’s Dunhuang-themed series became an instant hit. Other distinct original series, such as “Abundance of Prosperity,” saw over 20,000 units sold at the retail level within a month of launch, despite a high price point. Many customers chose these items as gifts for friends.

As Real Star’s creative design capabilities have become more recognized within cultural and creative fields, it has signed partnerships with institutions like the China Umbrella Museum in Hangzhou, Lishui Cultural Tourism Investment Development Co., Ltd, Ningbo Foreign Affairs School, and the Yuwangtai Park Scenic Area in Henan. The company has also maintained a longstanding relationship with China Daily, one of China’s leading media agencies.

Zhang Jiayuan shared that in addition to its strong design capabilities, Real Star’s craftsmanship honed over more than fifty years remains excellent. Take their ultra-light carbon fiber umbrellas as an example: creating a foldable umbrella that is wind-resistant and durable is challenging. While industry standards generally achieve a weight of 300g-500g for umbrella frames, Real Star has managed to create an ultra-light version that weighs around 100g without compromising wind resistance and durability, a series particularly popular with young people.

Real Star also retains a group of skilled artisans dedicated to producing high-quality umbrellas. It takes them more than six times longer to hand-sew an umbrella than with machine processes, yet the intricate craftsmanship and unique ribbing techniques rely on their expertise. Today, these artisans, together with Real Star Umbrella, are experiencing renewed vitality, supported by the e-commerce platform Yiwugo, and embodying the spirit of a flourishing modern enterprise.

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SOURCE Yiwugo.com

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IDrive® e2 Announces New Storage Region in Tokyo, Delivering High-Performance S3-Compatible Cloud Object Storage Optimized for AI and Modern Data Workloads

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LOS ANGELES, April 24, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — IDrive® e2, offering fast S3 compatible object storage, has added a new storage region in Tokyo, Japan, marking its first storage region in the country and providing customers in the region the opportunity to utilize one of the fastest and most affordable S3 compatible object storage solutions on the market.

Since the inception of IDrive® e2, international demand for the service has continued to accelerate. This expansion into Japan is part of IDrive’s ongoing mission to enhance the accessibility and performance of its cloud storage services for a global customer base.

The new location in Tokyo will bring high-performing object storage closer to businesses and developers in the region, enabling significantly faster data access, lower latency, and improved service reliability. By expanding to Japan, IDrive is further strengthening its commitment to providing secure, efficient, and scalable cloud storage solutions to the rapidly growing tech sector in East Asia.

With more than 14 locations across the United States, Canada, Europe, and Asia, this expansion underscores IDrive’s dedication to delivering high-quality cloud storage solutions that meet the needs of customers all over the world. With the new location in Tokyo, users can expect:

Enhanced Performance: Faster response times for S3 API calls by storing data closer to the point of use.Global Footprint: Access to a distributed network of storage regions, allowing for geo-redundancy and optimized data routing.Compliance & Security: IDrive® e2 is committed to upholding rigorous data protection standards, ensuring personal data is processed securely within the region.

“As we continue to see a surge in data generation across Asia, especially with AI workloads, expanding our footprint to Japan was a natural next step,” said Raghu Kulkarni, CEO of IDrive Inc. “Our goal is to provide the highest performance and cost-effective object storage available. With the Tokyo storage region, Asian businesses can now manage massive datasets with the speed of local storage and the economics of the cloud.”

IDrive® e2 remains one of the most affordable and feature-packed object storage solutions available. It features a straightforward pricing approach starting at $49.50/TB/year, as well as a $5/TB/month pay-as-you-go option, with no fees for egress or API calls.

Users in the region can now point their data to the Tokyo location for faster network performance and ease of access.

About IDrive

IDrive Inc. is a privately held company specializing in cloud storage, cloud backup, file sharing, remote access, compliance and related technologies. Core services include IDrive®, RemotePC™ and IBackup. The company’s services help over 5 million customers backup over 1 Exabyte of data.

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SOURCE IDrive Inc.

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Fuutura Launches as a Blockchain Infrastructure Company Building a Compliance-First Financial Ecosystem for the Global Market

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Founded by a King’s Counsel and a blockchain strategist, the company introduces a unified financial ecosystem for the over a billion adults left behind by legacy financial systems

PANAMA CITY, Panama, April 24, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Fuutura, a blockchain infrastructure company building a compliance-first financial ecosystem for the global market, today announced its official launch. Founded by Oliver Cook KC and Ellis McGrath, Fuutura launches with three integrated products designed to replace the fragmented financial infrastructure that prevents over a billion adults from fully participating in global financial markets.

 

Across the Global South, governments are writing digital asset frameworks for the first time. Fuutura has been built with this shift already in mind. The architecture is designed to be visible to regulators by default, with KYC and AML sitting within the protocol itself. Fuutura welcomes the inspection that responsible oversight requires.

Traditional financial systems were designed for specific markets, specific participants, and specific moments in financial history. According to the World Bank’s Global Findex 2025, 1.3 billion adults remain entirely excluded from the formal financial system – yet 900 million of them already own a mobile phone, and more than half have smartphones. The infrastructure to reach these populations exists and is growing. The financial architecture to serve them has never been built.

Fuutura’s answer is a compliance-first financial ecosystem built as a single connected platform. The ecosystem launches with three integrated products: Fuutura Identity, a reusable digital identity and KYC system that verifies once and works across the entire ecosystem; Fuutura Wallet, a non-custodial multi-chain wallet for storing, sending, receiving, and swapping digital assets; and Fuutura Trade, a digital asset exchange built to trade a significant depth of instruments across crypto, stablecoins, and tokenised real-world-assets.

Every product within the ecosystem is built around compliance from the protocol layer up, with KYC and AML integrated into the architecture rather than added as an afterthought.

“The financial systems that exist today were built to serve markets that already had the infrastructure to support them. Across the Global South, enormous populations have real demand for financial tools they simply cannot access. Fuutura is building the infrastructure that was always supposed to exist for them, built around compliance from the ground up and designed to support regulatory oversight as it develops.

Oliver Cook KC, Co-founder and Chief Legal Officer, Fuutura

“The same financial instruments available to people in developed markets should be available to anyone. We have built everything in-house, which means we are not dependent on third parties and we are not asking users to piece together a financial life from disconnected services. One ecosystem, genuinely accessible, with compliance built in from the start.”

Ellis McGrath, Co-founder and Chief Technology Officer, Fuutura

Fuutura is building for a market that existing financial infrastructure was never designed to serve. The company’s launch marks the beginning of a phased rollout, with further ecosystem development planned as the platform scales across the Global South and beyond.

About Fuutura
Fuutura is a blockchain infrastructure company building a compliance-first, accessible financial ecosystem for a global market. The platform brings together a reusable digital identity layer, a non-custodial multi-chain wallet, and a digital asset exchange spanning cryptocurrencies, stablecoins, and tokenised real-world assets. Identity verification and compliance attestation are built into the base architecture. Fuutura is designed to be open to regulatory oversight from the protocol layer up. We believe financial participation should be accessible to everyone, and we are building the infrastructure to make that possible.

Media Contact:
Fuutura
pr@fuutura.com

Forward-Looking Statements and Risk Disclosures
Digital asset risk. Digital assets are high-risk and their value may fall as well as rise. Trading digital assets involves significant risk and may not be suitable for all investors. Past performance is not a reliable indicator of future results.
Forward-looking statements. This press release contains forward-looking statements regarding Fuutura, its technology, products, business plans and future conduct, including statements relating to the phased rollout of the ecosystem, regulatory engagement and licensing outcomes, geographic expansion, and market ambitions. Forward-looking statements are identifiable by words such as “building,” “plans,” “intends,” “expects,” “designed to,” “anticipates” and similar expressions, as well as by statements regarding future outcomes, ambitions or strategic direction.
Forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and are subject to risks, uncertainties and assumptions that could cause actual outcomes to differ materially from those expressed. These include, without limitation, changes in the regulatory environment across jurisdictions; the availability and timing of licensing or authorisation; developments in digital asset markets; technological and cybersecurity risks; operational risks; counterparty and third-party risks; the pace of product development; and other factors beyond Fuutura’s control.
No offer or advice. Nothing in this press release constitutes an offer to sell, a solicitation to purchase, investment advice, or a recommendation in respect of any digital asset, crypto-asset, token, security, or financial product or instrument. Fuutura’s products and services may not be available in all jurisdictions and may be subject to regulatory restrictions. Access to Fuutura’s platform is restricted to residents of jurisdictions where its services are permitted.
No duty to update. Fuutura undertakes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by applicable law.

This release is not for distribution in any jurisdiction where such distribution would be unlawful.

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Betterness Closes $2.5m Seed Round and Launches Bett-i, the First Fully Autonomous Voice-First Life-Coaching System for Health and Performance

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A roster of leaders from health-tech, medicine, capital markets, elite athletic performance, and global culture join Betterness as investors and advisors, backing the company’s mission to build the agentic infrastructure for the $6 trillion global health and wellness industry.

MIAMI, April 24, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Betterness, Inc., the Augmented Wellness™ platform building agent-first infrastructure for the health and wellness industry, today announced the closing of its $2.5m seed round and the public launch of Bett-i™ — the first fully autonomous, voice-first AI life-coaching system ever created — available now at www.betti.bot.

The announcement marks a pivotal evolution for Betterness: from a longevity-focused consumer wellness platform into the company building the agentic operating layer on which the next generation of health and wellness products, services, and businesses will run. It follows the March 2026 debut of the Betterness MCP — the first agentic Model Context Protocol for real-world health and wellness services — and sets the stage for the upcoming launch of Betterness One, an enterprise solution that will fully automate health and wellness business operations on the same foundation.

“When we started Betterness, the question was whether AI could help any single person live better. Two years later the answer is obvious — and the real question has become whether AI can help every clinic, every gym, every longevity program, and every wellness brand run better. Our job now is to build the agentic infrastructure that makes that possible. Closing this round, launching Bett-i, and preparing Betterness One for enterprise is the trifecta that takes us there.”

— Demian Bellumio, Co-Founder & Co-CEO, Betterness

Introducing Bett-i — the first fully autonomous voice-first life coach

Bett-i (www.betti.bot) is the first voice-first, fully autonomous AI life-coaching system designed to accompany a human being through an entire day — not as a chatbot, but as a continuously running team of specialist agents that can order a lab, interpret a result, adjust a training plan, cancel a class, or send a recovery check-in without being asked.

Where previous generations of AI health tools wait for the user to ask a question, Bett-i initiates. It reads signal, it pattern-matches across a person’s life, and it takes action — always under explicit consent, always audit-logged, always voice-native.

What Bett-i can do, out of the box

Voice-first every surface. Wake-word conversational access, phone and SMS fall-through, Telegram, e-mail, and any MCP-compatible agent as a client. No app required.Autonomous daily briefs. Morning recovery + sleep-readiness + day-priorities brief, delivered via the user’s chosen channel. Evening wind-down, supplement reminders, and sleep-optimization protocol activation.End-to-end lab ordering. Bett-i can order labs across major diagnostic networks — Quest, LabCorp, BioReference — schedule draws, track biomarker trends, and surface actionable changes the moment a result returns.Agent marketplace. Hundreds of specialist agents — nutrition, endurance, sleep, longevity, hormone, recovery, fertility, clinical — with more from top partners added weekly. Any specialist can be summoned by voice; many run continuously in the background.Native wearable integrations. Apple Health, Oura, WHOOP, Garmin, Withings, Eight Sleep, and more — all flowing into the same context so every recommendation is life-aware, not generic.Contextual, life-situation-aware coaching. If you’re training for a marathon, Bett-i layers endurance biomarkers and recovery protocols onto your panel. If you’re planning a pregnancy, it pivots to preconception optimization. If you’re on a GLP-1, it watches the specific markers that matter.HIPAA-grade governance and trust. Consent-gated access, full audit trail, end-to-end encryption, never sold. Every tool call and every agent interaction is logged.

Bett-i is powered natively by the Betterness MCP, meaning it can be plugged into Claude, Cursor, or any MCP-compatible agent, and extended by any developer building on Betterness’ open agentic infrastructure.

“Precision health has always existed — but only for those who could afford it. Bett-i was built to change that. Bett-i coaches people through the most important decisions they make about their own health and wellness — autonomously, in their voice, with the full context of their life. Not when they remember to open an app. Just continuously, proactively, in their corner, keeping up with their real life 24/7. That’s what everyone deserves. That’s what everyone wants. That’s what we built.”

— Ari Katz, Co-Founder & Co-CEO, Betterness

The evolution of Betterness — an agentic infrastructure platform

The launch of Bett-i and the closing of this seed round complete the public picture of what Betterness has been quietly building: a coherent three-layer stack on which the global health and wellness industry can run.

Layer 1 — Betterness MCP (launched March 2026). The first agentic Model Context Protocol for real-world health and wellness services. Labs, biomarkers, wearables, provider networks, and specialist agents, accessible to any AI system under consent.Layer 2 — Bett-i (launching today at www.betti.bot). The first fully autonomous, voice-first life-coach ever deployed at consumer scale. Demonstrates the full surface area of the MCP in a product a human being can actually talk to and trust.Layer 3 — Betterness One (June 2026). The enterprise solution that takes the same agentic stack and automates the day-to-day operations of health and wellness businesses — clinics, gyms, longevity programs, wellness brands, med-spas. Zero missed leads, less admin work, members that stay. The business-side counterpart to Bett-i.

All three layers run on a shared enterprise-grade, HIPAA-compliant and SOC2-ready proprietary infrastructure platform.

Investors and advisors

The seed round and advisory board bring together operators, clinicians, capital-market builders, elite athletes, and cultural leaders across health-tech, medicine, capital markets, performance, and wellness lifestyle. Participating investors and advisors announced today include:

Health-tech founders & operators

Martin Varsavsky — Founder of Prelude Fertility and Certuma; one of Europe’s most prolific serial entrepreneurs in digital health and fertility.Justin Stone — Digital-health operator and general counsel to successive unicorn health-tech companies, including MDLIVE (acquired by Cigna), Thirty Madison, and Papa; long-time advisor to 40+ digital-health founders.

Medicine & longevity

Mark Rosenbloom, MD, MBA — Founder of Precision Performance Medicine℠, a concierge longevity and performance-medicine practice serving patients nationally; trained at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and Stanford GSB. His forthcoming book, ALIVE AF, publishes May 2026.Rabin Rahmani, MD, FACG — Medical Director- Gastroenterology Associates of Brooklyn/South Brooklyn Endoscopy Center.Lloyd Camper, MD, MPH — Center Physician at Cenegenics Miami and board-certified Family & Sports Medicine physician; USC-trained, with a Sports Medicine fellowship at Kaiser Permanente where he cared for athletes from high-school through the pros, including the Los Angeles Football Club (LAFC) of MLS.

Capital markets & digital infrastructure

Carlos Domingo — Co-Founder & CEO of Securitize; the leading tokenization platform for real-world assets, bringing deep expertise in regulated digital infrastructure.David Garcia — CIO and Managing Partner at Borderless Capital; a leading global venture firm bridging traditional capital with programmable financial infrastructure.

Elite performance

Eduardo della Maggiora — Founder & CEO of Betterfly, Latin America’s first “social unicorn” and a purpose-driven insurance and wellness-benefits platform operating across Latam and Europe; four-time Ironman World Championship finisher and two-time runner-up at the Ironman 70.3 World Championships.Apolo Ohno — Eight-time Olympic medalist, the most decorated American winter Olympian in history, and a long-time advisor to athletic-performance and longevity brands.

Culture, brand & wellness lifestyle

Vivie-Ann Bakos (BLOND:ISH) — BLOND:ISH is a globally touring DJ, producer, and movement-builder who left a small Canadian town to become one of electronic music’s most uncompromising forces. As founder of Abracadabra, Bye Bye Plastic, and the $NRG token, she operates on one principle: energy is the only real currency.Jose Molla — Co-Founder of La Comunidad (acquired by Publicis) and CEO & Co-Founder of Plural Doers Hub, the independent, minority-certified content-production studio.

About Betterness

Betterness is the Augmented Wellness™ platform building agent-first infrastructure for the global health and wellness industry. Its products — the Betterness MCP, Bett-i, and the upcoming Betterness One — run on a shared enterprise-grade, HIPAA-compliant and SOC2-ready stack designed to let developers, businesses, and individuals build and run the next generation of AI-powered health systems.

Learn more: www.betterness.aiwww.betti.bot

Media Contact

Jose Molla
Chief Marketing Officer, Betterness
jose@betterness.ai

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SOURCE Betterness, Inc.

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