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Granarium Technologies raises EUR 1 million to commercialise the world’s first renewable, affordable supercapacitors for grid stability and industrial reliability

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ESPOO, Finland, June 9, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — The VTT-originating startup Granarium Technologies is commercialising nanocellulose-based energy storage technology that upcycles waste wood and agro residues for fast-response power storage with significantly lower production costs and environmental impact compared to conventional solutions.

Granarium Technologies (Granarium), a deep-tech energy startup originating from VTT, has raised over EUR 1 million in total funding, comprising a pre-seed round led by BSV Ventures joint by Beamline, with participation from FiBAN (Finnish Business Angels Network), EstBAN and LatBAN.

VTT has transferred the underlying technology and IP to the newly established company. Granarium will use the funding to industrialise its patented renewable supercapacitor technology for grid stabilisation and industrial applications, both increasingly challenged by electrification, renewable integration, and power quality demands.

Grid volatility is increasing across Europe, while EU requirements, including grid codes and resilience frameworks, are tightening. The transition to renewable energy and electrification is creating structural demand for fast-response power storage, with UBS forecasting global energy storage demand to grow by approximately 40% year over year in 2026. Granarium’s renewable energy storage technology is built on a nanocellulose-based material platform that binds biocarbon structures for power storage, enabling up to 80% lower production capital expenditure in safe, scalable, and locally producible systems.

“A key structural shift is that storage is no longer just `backup power’ – it is becoming core grid infrastructure. Granarium is the perfect addition to our portfolio because the company is solving a massive global challenge in a safe and scalable way. We were also impressed with the company’s technology and experience, as well as the capacity to use local raw materials to make the production process sustainable and inexpensive,” says Jana Budkovskaja, Partner at BSV Ventures.

The company has secured pilot customers and key value chain partners and is preparing to launch its first pilots within six months of funding, focusing on process industries and continuously running production operations. Initial commercial production will begin at a small industrial scale, with capacity to deliver up to 50 units per year, forming the basis for rapid scale-up through industrial partnerships and international market expansion.

“Our approach supports Europe’s strategic goals of reducing dependency on critical raw materials and building local, resilient energy infrastructure. The new technology offers an easily scalable, self-sufficient solution that removes complex logistics chains and enables simple production using locally sourced materials. Deployment is as simple as installing a battery,” says Granarium CEO Paula Viinamäki.

Granarium’s first-of-its-kind technology can upcycle waste materials to create 100% renewable supercapacitors that store electricity. The system acts as a fast-response layer within energy systems, complementing batteries and addressing short-duration power needs such as grid balancing, frequency response, and industrial power quality. The devices help manage peak loads, improve power quality, and manage distributed power generation.

“Granarium demonstrates how successful technology transfer can turn advanced bio-based materials into real industrial solutions for secure and resilient energy storage,” says Atte Virtanen, Vice President, Advanced bio-based materials at VTT.

“We are not just improving existing solutions but redefining how power storage can be built and utilized. Compared to lithium-based energy storage devices that utilise finite resources, our devices are far more environmentally sustainable as they derive from local and self-sufficient renewable carbon sources, and lower in cost to produce compared to battery gigafactory investments,” says Otto-Ville Kaukoniemi, CTO at Granarium.

Granarium originated from VTT with strong, granted patents and validated technology (TRL5). The team combines expertise in materials science, energy systems, industrial scale-up, and commercialisation. In the future, the innovation will enable new concepts, including the use of the device’s design freedom to replace the passive elements of EVs to increase battery life.

For additional information:
Media kit with pictures

In the group photo of the Granarium Technologies team: Vesa Kunnari, Paula Viinamäki and Otto-Ville Kaukoniemi.

Granarium Technologies Oy
Paula Viinamäki, CEO
+358 40 708 0513, paula.viinamaki@granariumtech.com
www.granariumtech.com

VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland
Atte Virtanen, Vice President
+358 50 577 9770, atte.virtanen@vtt.fi 

Further information on VTT:
Paula Bergqvist, Communications Manager
+358 20 722 5161, paula.bergqvist@vtt.fi
www.vttresearch.com

Granarium Technologies Oy

Granarium Technologies Oy develops supercapacitors made from renewable materials for fast power stabilization in industrial and energy systems. The company utilizes forest industry side streams and high-consistency nanocellulose to create scalable, low-emission energy storage materials and devices. Granarium Technologies’ technology supports peak power management, power quality, renewable integration, and 24/7 industrial reliability while enabling local, resource-efficient production. For more information, visit www.granariumtech.com 

This information was brought to you by Cision http://news.cision.com

https://news.cision.com/vtt-info/r/granarium-technologies-raises-eur-1-million-to-commercialise-the-world-s-first-renewable–affordable,c4359154

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Haier Showcases AI-Powered Smart Home Ecosystem at IFA 2026

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Connected products understand and adapt to everyday needs

BERLIN, Sept. 6, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Haier, the world’s No. 1 brand in major home appliances for 17 consecutive years*, showcased an AI-powered smart home ecosystem at IFA 2026 spanning garment care, refrigeration, cooking, entertainment, digital services and robotics. Under the theme “Home of Intelligent Possibilities,” the showcase demonstrates how connected appliances can evolve into a coordinated home that senses conditions, understands context, learns from user habits and adapts the way devices operate, creating a more intuitive and responsive experience at home.

AI That Adapts to Everyday Life

Across the portfolio, AI turns real-time information into practical adjustments. The Vision 15 washing machine uses an internal camera, sensors and algorithms to detect factors such as load size, balance and foam levels, and then adjust water levels, detergent dosing, drum movement and program settings. In refrigeration, the Maestro prototype brings several preservation technologies together. Its AI Food Care System 2.0 recognizes stored ingredients and recommends suitable conditions to help users manage food more effectively.

The ID Ultimate Series 6 oven applies the same approach to cooking. Its internal camera recognizes food, monitors cooking progress and can stop the program when the desired result has been reached. In the living room, UltraSense AI analyzes content and ambient conditions to adjust picture and sound on Haier Smart TVs in real time.

Together, these technologies extend AI into coordinated home scenarios across laundry, food care, cooking and entertainment. The hOn app brings Haier Europe’s connected products, services and home experiences together in a single digital environment, enabling them to work together around daily routines and translate connected technology into practical benefits at home.

This progression from individual products to coordinated home scenarios is already reaching users at scale. According to Euromonitor International, Haier Smart Home was recognized as the world’s No. 1 smart home enterprise based on global smart home revenue in 2025. Haier smart home platform has surpassed 130 million registered users worldwide and recorded 86.1 billion smart scene interactions in 2025.

Extending Intelligence Into Physical Interaction

Haier also showed how AI and embodied intelligence could translate smart home intelligence into physical tasks. The showcase featured humanoid robots interacting with appliances, robotic cleaning systems designed to recognize objects and different types of dirt, along with companion robots developed for voice assistance and personalized support.

The Haier Exoskeleton extended this theme beyond the home. Its sensors and algorithms interpret movement intentions in real time and adjust the assistance provided to each user, supporting mobility while preserving natural movement. Together, the demonstrations reflect Haier’s work to connect AI, appliances and robotics around practical human needs.

This technology portfolio is supported by Haier’s “10+N” open innovation system, which connects global research resources with local user insights. In the first half of 2026, Haier topped on IPRdaily’s global smart home invention patent list for the 15th consecutive time. Looking ahead, Haier plans to invest at least 13 billion euros over the next five years, with a focus on foundational technologies including artificial intelligence, semiconductors and IoT security to underpin its AI-native transformation.

Haier’s presence at IFA also highlights its global sports partnerships under the “Play with the Number Ones” concept, connecting the pursuit of excellence in sports with the brand’s focus on innovation, performance and better user experiences worldwide.

Visitors can experience Haier’s smart home technologies in Hall 3.1 at Stand 101 during IFA 2026 in Berlin from Sept. 4 to 8.

*Source: Euromonitor International Limited; Consumer Appliances 2026 Edition; % unit share, 2025 volume sales data

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Over 400 media professionals seek new drivers for Asia-Pacific growth

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GUANGZHOU, China, Sept. 6, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — This is a news report from South: 

According to Xinhua News Agency, the Asia-Pacific Media Forum will kick off in Shenzhen on September 5.

Over 400 domestic and foreign media professionals will gather in Shenzhen to explore China’s opportunities and identify new growth drivers for the Asia-Pacific within the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area.

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Tuya Smart Brings Full-Stack AI into Everyday Life at IFA 2026

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BERLIN, Sept. 6, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Tuya Smart (NYSE: TUYA; HKEX: 2391), a global AI cloud platform service provider, is showcasing its latest advances in physical AI at IFA 2026 under the theme “Hey Tuya.”

Headlining the exhibit is the global debut of the new AI companion robot Doova, alongside the European debut of Tuya’s AI Home, AI Energy, and AI Robot ecosystems, the Hey Tuya whole-space intelligent interaction experience, a full-stack Matter portfolio, and development tools designed to help turn AI hardware concepts into working products.

The showcase illustrates how Tuya is connecting cloud intelligence, devices, and developer tools to move AI beyond screens and into practical use across homes, energy systems, robotics, pet care, and personal assistance.

Doova Extends Physical AI to Home Companionship and Assistance

Following the debut of Aura, Tuya’s AI companion robot for pets, Tuya is expanding its robotics portfolio with Doova, a home companion robot designed for independently living seniors to combine emotional companionship, everyday assistance, health-related reminders, and home monitoring. Doova is equipped with LDS LiDAR, sound source localization, and AI vision-based posture recognition algorithms.

Doova can respond to a simple voice request for help and navigate to the user’s location, assess their posture, and, if necessary, place a video call to family members. Day to day, it can hold conversations, play audio and video, help users understand complex bills and letters, flag potential fraud risks, and guide them through the operation of smart appliances. It can also provide medication, weather, and schedule reminders, along with practical suggestions related to meals, gardening, and clothing. When users are away, Doova can patrol the home and generate a security report.

Together, these capabilities demonstrate how physical AI can combine contextual awareness with connected-device control to support more responsive and accessible living experiences.

AI Home, AI Robot, and AI Energy Make Their European Debut

At IFA 2026, Tuya is presenting its AI Home, AI Robot, and AI Energy application ecosystems together in Europe for the first time, combined with the Company’s full-stack Matter solutions.

AI Home brings together a range of AI-powered devices, including an AI radar sleep speaker, AI printer, baby monitor, AI flower pot, and AI learning companion, extending AI capabilities into everyday scenarios such as home care, pet care, and plant care.

For example, the AI radar sleep speaker integrates millimeter-wave radar technology to accurately detect user activity and trigger adaptive smart home functions—such as automatically turning off the lights once the user falls asleep. It can also monitor heart rate, breathing, and snoring in real time to generate daily sleep analysis reports. In addition, built-in white noise, natural soundscapes, and meditation music help users relax and drift into sleep more easily.

The smart pet collar uses sensitive audio capture and AI-based emotion analysis to interpret changes in a pet’s vocalizations and breathing. The AI radar speaker combines natural-language control of connected devices with contactless radar sensing for heart rate, breathing, snoring, and sleep quality, alongside functions such as alarms, focus timers, and white noise.

AI Robot products span pet care, interactive collectibles, and desktop tools, including Aura, Fuzozo, Walulu, an AI owl, and an AI robot dog. Aura combines behavioral analysis and sound recognition to interpret a pet’s emotional state, while features such as laser play, treat dispensing, and simulated pet sounds support interactive companionship.

Tuya AI Energy connects balcony solar and storage, smart metering and distribution, and EV charging into a household energy network spanning generation, storage, measurement, management, and consumption. By integrating real-time and dynamic tariff data from more than 800 electricity providers and more than 1,000 dynamic tariff service providers across Europe, the system intelligently shifts household loads to help reduce overall energy costs, improving energy efficiency and reshaping the value proposition of home energy storage. The exhibit demonstrates how Tuya’s energy management capabilities coordinate infrastructure and connected devices across the home.

A Full-Stack Matter Portfolio for Interoperable Products

Tuya is also showcasing an end-to-end Matter portfolio spanning chip modules and cloud services. The offering supports Matter over Wi-Fi, Matter over Thread, and Ethernet, as well as bridges from Zigbee, Bluetooth, and Wi-Fi to Matter. It covers product categories including gateways, central control panels, lighting, plugs, sensors, curtain motors, thermostatic radiator valves, locks, and cameras.

Beyond standard Matter capabilities, Tuya layers on distinctive features — remote management, energy tracking, music-synced lighting — and integrates ecosystem tools like Amazon Frustration-Free Setup and the Google Matter API — allowing products to achieve cross-platform interoperability while preserving a differentiated user experience.

Hey Tuya Coordinates the Connected Home through Natural Language

Built on a multi-agent collaborative architecture, Hey Tuya is designed to coordinate services and devices across everyday scenarios rather than operate as a single-device assistant. Users can issue natural-language commands such as “Turn on the dining room lights” or “I’m leaving — activate monitoring,” allowing multiple devices and scenes to respond together.

The experience centers on four capabilities: round-the-clock home security monitoring; energy analysis and personalized efficiency recommendations; natural-language control and automation across multiple devices; and personalized services that adapt to household routines and preferences.

Tuya plans to continue improving the reliability, response speed, and task execution of Hey Tuya, while exploring subscription and value-added services in areas such as energy optimization, pet care, and video understanding.

Developer Tools Shorten the Path from Concept to Working Hardware

Tuya’s developer showcase presents a full technology stack for AI hardware development, where visitors can experience firsthand how ideas can be rapidly turned into functional AI applications that interact with and enhance daily life through the TuyaOpen open-source framework, Tuya Cobuilder, and Tuya AI Coding.

Tuya Cobuilder is an end-to-end Physical AI Builder designed for AI hardware developers. By simply describing an AI hardware concept in natural language, users can complete the entire development workflow in one place, ultimately enabling the application to run directly on real hardware. Tuya AI Coding, the Company’s AI-native no-code application development platform, lets users turn ideas into AI-powered applications with a single prompt—enabling non-technical creators to become builders of AI-powered experiences.

By bringing AI applications, interoperable device infrastructure, and development tools into one ecosystem, Tuya aims to help its global AIoT developer ecosystem create practical AI products more efficiently. The Company will continue advancing AI Home, AI Energy, and AI Robot applications and collaborating with developers and partners to make intelligent living safer, more convenient, and more responsive to individual needs.

About Tuya Smart

Tuya Inc. (NYSE: TUYA; HKEX: 2391) is a leading global AI cloud platform service provider dedicated to bringing AI into everyday life. Through its TuyaOpen open-source development framework and universal AI Agent engines, including the AI Agent development platform, Tuya integrates multimodal AI capabilities to lower barriers for AI development, efficiently advancing the realization of AI-driven lifestyles and accelerating AI integration with the physical world. Tuya offers innovative physical AI solutions for smart devices, commercial applications, and industry developers through its cloud computing and spatial intelligence capabilities. It also provides a complete, open, and neutral global AIoT ecosystem.

As of June 30, 2026, the Tuya AI Developer Platform had over 2,092,000 registered AI developers from more than 200 countries and regions.

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