SINGAPORE, Sept. 18, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — After years of exhibiting at CES in the United States, Lovense made a successful debut at IFA Berlin 2026, bringing its technology-driven approach to intimacy to a new audience of consumers and media.

The presence of a sexual wellness brand at a mainstream consumer electronics show carries significance beyond a single company’s booth. It reflects a growing public willingness to discuss sexual health as part of everyday life and marks a step toward normalizing intimacy products within the broader consumer technology landscape. Lovense, as the pioneer in sexual wellness technology industry with over 15 years of product development, presenting its connected intimacy ecosystem to international audiences and media.

At its booth, Lovense presented an experience titled “A Day in the Lovense Ecosystem,” structured around four segments representing different moments in a user’s day. Each segment highlighted a distinct capability: the Lovense Remote App for partner control, long-distance sync for couples separated by geography, gaming integration, and digital interaction. Together, the segments illustrated how the brand’s interconnected platform accompanies users throughout daily life, meeting a range of needs and scenarios.

Lovense also exhibited its second prototype of its Intimate Doll in Europe for the first time. The device features natural voice interaction and responsive physical movement, and is designed to learn and adapt to individual user preferences. It operates in conjunction with other products within the Lovense ecosystem, enabling coordinated experiences across multiple devices.

Lovense‘s IFA showcase drew attention from international and European media outlets as well as content creators, generating coverage across multiple markets. The positive reception confirmed growing mainstream interest in the intersection of technology and intimacy — and Lovense‘s position at the forefront of that conversation.

About Lovense:Lovense is a sexual wellness technology company specializing in app-controlled, connected intimacy products. With over 15 years of development, the company builds hardware, software, and platform solutions designed to enhance user experience and strengthen connection between partners regardless of distance. Lovense products are available in markets worldwide.

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SOURCE Lovense

BEIJING, Sept. 20, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Chinese President Xi Jinping has urged sustained efforts to expand and strengthen advanced manufacturing to provide strong support for advancing Chinese modernization. Xi, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, made the remarks in a recent instruction, which was conveyed at a national conference on advanced manufacturing held in Beijing on Wednesday and Thursday, according to the Xinhua News Agency.

Efforts should be made to ensure both high-quality development and greater security, pursue smart, green and integrated development, and make the country’s industrial chains more self-supporting and risk-resilient, Xi stressed, Xinhua reported.

The remarks come as advanced manufacturing is taking on a larger role in underpinning China’s industrial growth and driving structural upgrading. In the first eight months of the year, value-added industrial output of major enterprises increased 5.3 percent year-on-year, while that of high-tech manufacturing rose 14.2 percent.

Experts said that smart, green and integrated developments together chart the key direction for China’s manufacturing upgrade, with intelligent technologies providing the foundation, green development shaping long-term competitiveness, and deeper integration helping traditional industries accelerate transformation.

They added that the push will also help strengthen China’s indigenous capabilities in key technologies and make industrial and supply chains more independent and resilient, while maintaining openness to global industrial cooperation.

Key directions for upgrading

Xi emphasized the need to accelerate the development of a modernized industrial system with advanced manufacturing as the backbone, and reinforce the foundations of the real economy.

Premier Li Qiang, also a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, delivered a speech at the conference, Xinhua reported.

Xi’s important instructions provide essential guidance for developing advanced manufacturing, Li said, noting that China must treat developing advanced manufacturing as a major strategic task, and press steadily to boost its strength in manufacturing.

Bian Yongzu, executive deputy editor-in-chief of Modernization of Management magazine, told the Global Times that smart development provides the technological foundation, with AI, big data, intelligent equipment and robotics increasingly embedded in production to improve efficiency, precision and automation. Green development points to the long-term direction, as lower-carbon and more resource-efficient production becomes an increasingly important part of industrial competitiveness, he explained.

Integrated development, Bian said, is especially relevant to China’s vast manufacturing base. China has both advanced factories and a large number of traditional industries that remain essential to the economy. The key is not simply to replace traditional manufacturing, but to upgrade it by bringing intelligent and green technologies into existing production systems.

Chen Jing, vice president of the Technology and Strategy Research Institute, told the Global Times that the different dimensions of manufacturing upgrading reinforce each other. Intelligent technologies can serve as a common lever, supporting both technological upgrading and emissions reduction, while green development creates new demand for higher-end technologies. Stronger technological capabilities and higher value-added production can in turn support further investment in intelligent and green transformation.

Chen also said competition in advanced manufacturing will go beyond production capacity and prices. Innovation capability, industrial security, product quality and branding, as well as low-carbon capabilities, will become crucial measures of competitiveness.

The broader shift, he said, is from factor-driven growth toward innovation-driven development, and from advantages in individual products toward stronger industrial ecosystems and a higher position in global value chains.

He added that moving in these directions will also help strengthen China’s technological self-reliance, reduce excessive reliance on external sources in key areas, and improve its ability to make breakthroughs in critical technologies.

China’s advantages include its vast domestic market, complete industrial system, strong engineering workforce and rich application scenarios, Chen said. The large market gives companies room to test and improve new products quickly, while dense supply chains and a broad manufacturing base help shorten the path from R&D to mass production.

Self-reliance, however, does not mean cutting China off from global industrial cooperation, Chen said. A more realistic path is to strengthen the substitutability of key technologies and improve supply-chain resilience, while continuing to participate in international cooperation and global markets.

Breakthroughs across advanced manufacturing

Smart, green and integrated upgrading is already taking shape across China’s manufacturing sector, as emerging technologies move faster into industrial application.

The Global Times learned from AGIBOT that its Genie G2 humanoid robot has been deployed on a tablet production line in Nanchang, East China’s Jiangxi Province, where it performs precision loading and unloading tasks with a reported success rate of 99 percent.

Yao Maoqing, co-founder of AGIBOT and chairman and CEO of Maniformer Technology, told the Global Times that embodied intelligence is a typical example of the deep integration of AI and advanced manufacturing. China’s rich manufacturing scenarios, complete industrial system and growing innovation capacity could accelerate the transition of embodied intelligence from technological breakthroughs to large-scale applications, he said.

The expansion of robotics into real production is not confined to factory assembly lines. DEEP Robotics told the Global Times that it is integrating AI with motion control, environmental perception and autonomous navigation, while deploying robots in energy, power inspection, emergency response and other complex environments.

As Chinese robotic technologies enter a wider range of industrial scenarios, the company said it is also adapting its products and services to overseas markets and building local partnerships.

Behind the expanding applications is an increasingly complete industrial ecosystem. Shenzhen’s “Robot Valley,” covering about 28 square kilometers, has gathered more than 200 robotics-related companies, including more than 25 humanoid robot manufacturers. Its industrial chain stretches from AI models, tactile sensors and lidar to servo motors, joint modules, robotic arms and dexterous hands, with the localization rate of key components exceeding 90 percent.

The momentum seen in robotics is part of a broader acceleration across China’s advanced manufacturing sector. In August, value-added output of equipment manufacturing rose 12.1 percent year-on-year, while high-tech manufacturing expanded 16.7 percent. New growth drivers, led by high-tech manufacturing and digital product manufacturing, contributed more than 60 percent of the growth in industrial output that month. Industrial robot output jumped 34.6 percent year-on-year.

Besides robotics, recent advances have also extended in other fields. The CR450 high-speed train has completed whole-vehicle testing; the Zhuque-3 Y2 reusable carrier rocket achieved a land recovery of its first stage; and China’s second domestically built large cruise ship, Adora Flora City, is scheduled for delivery in November.

The transformation is also becoming greener. During the 15th Five-Year Plan period (2026-30), China plans to cultivate 500 zero-carbon factories and develop replicable models, while pushing traditional industries including steel, nonferrous metals and petrochemicals to adopt cleaner raw materials and fuels, optimize product structures and integrate low-carbon technologies.

China will also improve standards for green factories, green supply chains and green industrial parks. By 2030, output from green factories at all levels is targeted to account for 45 percent of the total output of major manufacturing enterprises.

Bian Yongzu told the Global Times that China’s expanding advanced manufacturing capacity is increasingly translating into stronger global competitiveness.

As Chinese manufacturers improve technological capabilities, efficiency and product quality, they are not only meeting increasingly diversified domestic demand, but also supplying more high-tech and cost-effective products to overseas markets, he said.

He said this reflects a broader shift in Chinese manufacturing from scale expansion toward higher technological content and stronger competitiveness, while creating more opportunities for industrial cooperation with other countries.

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SOURCE Global Times

SHANGHAI, Sept. 20, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — The inaugural S2S China Symposium has announced the finalists of its 2026 program. Co-hosted by RA Capital Management and Qiming Venture Partners, S2S China is the China chapter of Science2Startup, an invitation-only symposium connecting top academic researchers with leading biotech investors. Ten standout biotech startup teams were selected from a highly competitive pool of applicants. They will refine their projects through a dedicated mentorship program and pitch to top global venture investors at an on-site event held at Westlake University on October 15.

S2S was founded in 2018 by F-Prime, SV Health and Atlas Venture; RA Capital Management, Osage University Partners and 5AM Ventures have since joined the program. It connects therapeutics researchers at top academic and research institutions with leading biotech investors, pharma scouts, and industry executives. The program provides selected teams with mentorship and a platform to present novel, proprietary science with a path toward company formation and clinical development.

This year’s S2S China drew enthusiastic participation from researchers and early-stage founders across China’s therapeutics research ecosystem. Following multiple rounds of rigorous review by an advisory group of experienced biopharma investors, the competition narrowed a large field of submissions to roughly 20 semifinalist teams, and ultimately selected ten standout teams to advance to the finals and present at the October 15 on-site pitch event.

To help the participating teams connect effectively with the capital markets and strengthen their overall project framework, the finalists will take part in a dedicated mentorship program ahead of the event. Over the coming weeks, the teams will work alongside the S2S China Symposium advisory group, made up of experienced biotech investors and industry operators, to refine their scientific plans, sharpen their commercial narratives and polish their pitch content, raising the maturity of each project and laying a solid foundation for the on-site presentations and funding conversations that follow.

This year’s S2S China Symposium is supported by prominent figures from academia and the global life sciences investment community, including Shi Yigong, President of Westlake University; Kan Chen, Partner and Healthcare Co-Lead at Qiming Venture Partners; and Josh Resnick, Partner at RA Capital Management. Their deep involvement underscores the symposium’s value as a bridge between China’s academic research ecosystem and the global biotech venture community, while continuing the model established by the original Science2Startup symposium.

The event brings together a number of globally recognized institutions and biopharma leaders, forming a powerful supporting ecosystem. This year’s S2S China Symposium would not be possible without the strong support of leading companies across the industry, including our Platinum Sponsors Goodwin, Eli Lilly and Biocytogen, as well as Johnson & Johnson (Gold Sponsor) and Sanofi (Silver sponsor). The partnership of our sponsors reflects a shared commitment to advancing early-stage, academically-derived therapeutics innovation from China onto the global stage.

Platinum Sponsors

Goodwin is a global law firm at the intersection of capital and innovation, representing innovators and investors across healthcare, investment funds & capital, life sciences, private equity, real estate, and technology.  With more than 2,800 professionals worldwide, Goodwin combines industry knowledge, legal excellence, and business advisory expertise to help clients navigate complex challenges and seize opportunities in a rapidly changing, technology-driven economy.  We represent clients throughout the full corporate lifecycle, including company formation, financings, capital markets transactions, licensing and collaborations, M&A, regulatory matters, and exit strategies.  Learn more: https://www.goodwinlaw.com/en

Eli Lilly and Company is a global pharmaceutical leader headquartered in Indianapolis, Indiana, dedicated to discovering and delivering medicines that make life better for people around the world. With a deep commitment to scientific innovation, Lilly has been an active partner to the region’s biotech ecosystem, supporting early discovery through late-stage development across a range of therapeutic areas.

Biocytogen is a global biotechnology company discovering and developing next-generation antibody therapeutics across multiple modalities. The company has built a broad portfolio of novel drug candidates spanning monoclonal and bispecific antibodies, ADCs, VHH-based therapeutics, and other antibody-based modalities, with multiple programs advancing into clinical development both internally and through global licensing partnerships. Powered by its proprietary RenMice® platforms and large-scale antibody discovery engine, Biocytogen has generated more than one million fully human antibody sequences across over 1,000 therapeutic targets and established partnerships with more than 455 biopharmaceutical companies worldwide.

Gold Sponsor

Johnson & Johnson is a global healthcare leader, headquartered in New Brunswick, New Jersey, committed to solving the toughest health challenges and transforming lives through research, development, manufacture and distribution of medicines and medical technologies. The company’s Innovative Medicine business advances breakthrough science and develops transformational treatments in areas like oncology, immunology, neuroscience, and cardiopulmonary. In MedTech, the company is focused on developing and delivering cardiovascular, surgery, and vision solutions.

Silver Sponsor

Sanofi is a global biopharmaceutical company headquartered in Paris, France, dedicated to pursuing scientific breakthroughs that improve people’s lives. The company focuses on immunology, oncology, neurology, rare diseases, ophthalmology and vaccines, and maintains a significant R&D and commercial presence in China, where it has long invested in partnerships with local academic and biotech innovators to expand its global pipeline.

More information is available at s2schina.com/s2s/en.

About Qiming Venture Partners

Qiming Venture Partners was founded in 2006. Currently, Qiming Venture Partners manages eleven US Dollar funds and seven RMB funds with $9.5 billion in capital raised. Since our establishment, we have invested in outstanding companies in the Technology and Healthcare industries at the early and growth stages.

Since our debut, we have backed over 580 fast-growing and innovative companies. Over 210 of our portfolio companies have achieved exits through IPOs at the NYSE, NASDAQ, HKEX, Shanghai Stock Exchange, or Shenzhen Stock Exchange, or through M&A or other means. There are also over 80 portfolio companies that have achieved unicorn or super unicorn status.

Many of our portfolio companies are today’s most influential firms in their respective sectors, including  Xiaomi, Meituan, Bilibili, Zhihu, Roborock, Hesai Technology, UBTech, WeRide, HyperStrong, Insta360, Unisound, Biren Technology, Z.ai, Gan & Lee Pharmaceuticals, Tigermed, Zai Lab, CanSino Biologics, Schrödinger, APT Medical, Sanyou Medical, AmoyDx, SinocellTech, Insilico Medicine, AusperBio, Yuanxin Technology, Medilink Therapeutics, LaNova Medicines, StepFun, among many others.

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SOURCE Qiming Venture Partners