Qiming Venture Partners Weekly: Top 10 Portfolio Company Updates Vol. 03, Jan. 27, 2026
Join us in celebrating milestone moments for Qiming Venture Partners' portfolio companies
Editor's Note: In 2026, the Qiming Weekly gets a fresh upgrade. Updated every week, it features just ten handpicked updates from Qiming Venture Partners' portfolio companies — covering funding milestones and breakthrough developments.
Every step entrepreneurs take in the tide of technology and innovation deserves to be recorded. Qiming Venture Partners will continue to accelerate and empower founders, and we invite you to follow along as we spotlight these milestone moments.
Funding News
StepFun Raises Over RMB 5 Billion in Series B+ Round
StepFun, a Qiming Venture Partners portfolio company, recently completed a Series B+ round of over RMB 5 billion — setting a new record for the largest single financing round in China's large model space over the past 12 months. Qiming Venture Partners participated with additional investment. The proceeds will fund foundational model R&D to build world-class base models and accelerate the execution of its AI + endpoints strategy.
"Foundational large models" and "AI + endpoints" have long been StepFun's core strategic bets. Leveraging its distinctive model algorithms and systems capabilities, StepFun has achieved world-leading performance in language base models, multimodal models, and edge-cloud collaborative models. Its R&D has taken shape as a "1+2" core matrix: on one hand, continuously pushing the boundaries of intelligence through dedicated investment in language foundational large models — to date, StepFun has released three generations of base models, with Step 3 setting new industry benchmarks for inference efficiency; on the other hand, going full throttle on two directions — full multimodality (voice, image, etc.) and edge-cloud integration — to drive models from understanding the world toward actively interacting with and exploring the physical world. In December 2025, StepFun released the industry's first truly deployable GUI open-source model, supporting multi-endpoint deployment across phones, vehicles, and computers via an edge-cloud solution. In January 2026, its voice model Step Audio R1.1 ranked #1 globally on the authoritative Artificial Analysis leaderboard.
On the applications front, StepFun is executing its "AI + endpoints" strategy with a sharp focus on automotive and mobile — core consumer scenarios where it has rapidly closed commercial loops and demonstrated clear leadership. As of end-2025, its endpoint Agent API call volume grew nearly 170% for three consecutive quarters. In mobile, 60% of China's top-tier phone brands have established deep partnerships with StepFun, covering flagship models from OPPO, HONOR, and ZTE, with models pre-installed on over 42 million devices serving nearly 20 million daily active users. In automotive, StepFun has partnered with Qianli Technology and Geely to jointly launch the industry's first AgentOS smart cockpit powered by an end-to-end voice model — the mass-production model Geely Galaxy M9 sold nearly 40,000 units within three months of launch and has already entered overseas markets. This year, StepFun's large models are expected to be deployed in over one million vehicles.
On the same day, StepFun announced that Qi Yin has formally assumed the role of Chairman, responsible for setting the company's strategic rhythm and technical direction. Yin brings deep expertise in artificial intelligence, with extensive experience in technology evolution, commercial judgment, and organizational building. He will join CEO Daxin Jiang, Chief Scientist Xiangyu Zhang, and CTO Yibo Zhu to form the core management team, driving foundational large model R&D and closing the commercial loop on AI + endpoints.
Major Partnerships
01/ Merck China and Magnesium Chemistry Sign MOU
Merck, a leading global science and technology company, recently announced a memorandum of understanding with Magnesium Chemistry. The two sides will pursue strategic cooperation across R&D efficiency enhancement, building localized AI and automation capabilities, and business synergy expansion — marking a solid step for Merck in advancing local technological innovation and digital transformation.
Per the MOU, Magnesium Chemistry will leverage its high-throughput automated laboratory and AI technology platform to provide chemical synthesis and related services for Merck China, accelerating molecular synthesis speed and shortening product development cycles. Magnesium Chemistry will also assist Merck China in building localized AI and automated laboratory capabilities. The two parties will jointly develop customized AI models deployed in Merck China's local environment to ensure data security and compliance. They will also explore collaboration opportunities on Merck China's life science platform to expand product and service offerings.
Lin Sen, Founder and CEO of Magnesium Chemistry, said: "Our self-developed chemical synthesis platform, through continuous operation and AI closed-loop feedback mechanisms, is redefining the efficiency frontier of chemical synthesis. The partnership with Merck China not only provides a valuable opportunity to validate and optimize our technology in broader application scenarios, but also allows us to explore the future of intelligent chemical synthesis alongside world-class research teams."
02/ UBTECH and National Robot Testing and Evaluation Center (Guangzhou) Form Strategic Partnership
UBTECH (09880.HK), a Qiming Venture Partners portfolio company and the "first humanoid robot stock," recently signed a cooperation framework agreement with the National Robot Testing and Evaluation Center (Guangzhou) ("NRTEC Guangzhou"). The two sides will leverage their respective strengths in humanoid robot product R&D and testing/certification to jointly build a robot core components pilot validation and quality improvement technology service platform, systematically carry out validation testing for humanoid robot systems and components, jointly advance quality improvement for humanoid robots and core components, and collaborate on standard-setting. They will also jointly promote the establishment of a national-level joint laboratory for robot core component testing.
NRTEC Guangzhou is one of six national centers approved by the National Development and Reform Commission in 2015, operated by China Automotive Technology & Research Center Co., Ltd. and affiliated with Fortune Global 500 company China National Machinery Industry Corporation (Sinomach). It specializes in third-party testing and certification services for robots and automation equipment. The center also operates the "National Automation Equipment Quality Inspection and Testing Center," with 14 testing laboratories for robots and automation equipment. It has long participated in drafting and formulating standards in robotics and intelligent equipment, and is an authorized "China Robot CR Certification" issuing body by the national certification and accreditation administration. UBTECH brings over 13 years of experience in humanoid robot R&D, production, and delivery, with industrial humanoid robot production capacity reaching 10,000 units in 2026. UBTECH also participates in the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology's humanoid robot and Embodied Artificial Intelligence standardization technical committee, with Xiong Youjun, General Manager of Beijing Humanoid Robot Innovation Center and UBTECH Executive Director and CTO, serving as Deputy Director, and Jiao Jichao, UBTECH Vice President and Dean of Research Institute, serving as Committee Member. The company has led the formulation of national technical standards for humanoid robot operation, positioning and navigation, and human-robot interaction, and has participated in drafting and publishing over 40 standards in intelligent robots and artificial intelligence, working with industry stakeholders to continuously advance standardization in foundational commonality, key technologies, core components, complete systems, applications, and safety for humanoid robots and Embodied Artificial Intelligence.
03/ Insilico Medicine Partners with Shanghai Pulmonary Hospital
Insilico Medicine, a Qiming Venture Partners portfolio company, recently joined with Shanghai Pulmonary Hospital to host the "AI-Empowered Chest Disease Innovative Drug R&D in the New Era" working conference and signed a strategic cooperation agreement. The two sides will deeply integrate the hospital's first-class clinical resources and deep disease expertise with Insilico Medicine's globally leading AI drug discovery capabilities, with clinical value as the core orientation, to jointly explore a new drug R&D innovation path driven by data and intelligence.
Innovative drug R&D has long faced challenges of high investment, long timelines, and high risk. Target identification and biological analysis, as the starting point of R&D, directly affect subsequent direction and success rates. Under this cooperation, the two sides will establish a "Joint Laboratory for AI-Empowered Chest Disease Innovative Drug R&D" with "data security and clinical value" at its core, focusing on real-world data research, novel biomarker discovery, and AI-assisted therapy development; and deploy PandaOmics locally within the hospital environment to build a "from clinical needs, back to clinical needs" closed-loop system, advancing chest disease mechanism research, target identification, and biomarker discovery, and accelerating the translation of innovative outcomes into clinical practice.
Ren Feng, Co-CEO of Insilico Medicine, said: "We are delighted to partner with Shanghai Pulmonary Hospital. The deep clinical insights, rich data, and resources of the hospital's experts will become the most valuable 'fuel' driving PandaOmics' continuous learning and iteration; and the precise insights and candidate drugs generated by the platform will directly connect with the hospital's globally leading clinical validation system. This forms a perfect closed loop: starting from unmet clinical needs, leveraging AI to mine critical clues and accelerate R&D, and ultimately bringing results back to the clinic to benefit patients."
04/ Tashi Zhihang and Kupaosi Announce Strategic Partnership
Recently, Shanghai Kupaosi Technology and Tashi Zhihang, a Qiming Venture Partners portfolio company, announced a strategic partnership and held a signing ceremony. The two sides will pursue deep cooperation across three directions: advancing Embodied Artificial Intelligence data standards, building vertical Embodied Artificial Intelligence corpora, and jointly establishing the "Embodied Data Spark Plan."
Both parties agree that updating Embodied Artificial Intelligence data standards is urgently needed. Current industry reliance on existing paradigms — internet data, simulation data, and even teleoperation real-machine data — shows clear limitations in supporting large-scale, high-quality deployment of Embodied Artificial Intelligence. Tashi's globally pioneering Human-centric data paradigm, based on real-scenario human operation process data, more closely aligns with Embodied Artificial Intelligence's essential needs for understanding the physical world and coordinating action, effectively compensating for consistency and generalization shortcomings in traditional data sources. Accordingly, both sides agree to take Human-centric as the core and jointly develop data standards to deepen Embodied Artificial Intelligence's development in relevant industries.
Wenchao Ding, Chief Scientist of Tashi Zhihang, said: "The future of Embodied Artificial Intelligence is rooted in high-quality data. Tashi Zhihang firmly believes that only through Human-centric (production-accompanying) data collection methods can the entire Embodied Artificial Intelligence industry truly acquire sufficiently large-scale, sufficiently diverse, high-quality real physical world data, thereby achieving true general-purpose Embodied Artificial Intelligence. We are pleased to partner with Kupaosi, starting from vertical Embodied Artificial Intelligence corpus construction and the 'Embodied Data Spark Plan,' to jointly build a secure, open, and shared new data ecosystem."
05/
DeepWay Delivers 100 Intelligent New Energy Heavy-Duty Trucks to STO Express
Recently, DeepWay, a Qiming Venture Partners portfolio company, held a vehicle delivery ceremony with STO Express in Shanghai, delivering 100 DeepWay Xingchen new energy heavy-duty trucks. This marks the formal entry of the two sides' cooperation into scaled operations in express trunk-line transport scenarios. In early 2025, STO Express became an industry pioneer by introducing 36 DeepWay Xingchen intelligent new energy heavy-duty trucks for 23 core transport routes in the Jiangsu-Zhejiang-Shanghai region. Through prolonged, high-intensity real-world operations, these vehicles demonstrated outstanding stability and energy consumption control. Based on the reliable operational data and excellent TCO performance of the first batch, STO Express chose to deepen its partnership with DeepWay and further expand cooperation scale.
For the express industry, cost control is the lifeline. Through forward-looking clean-sheet design and technological breakthroughs, DeepWay precisely targets critical express logistics application scenarios. The company employs an all-new vehicle architecture, with an industry-first streamlined low-drag body design achieving the lowest drag coefficient among mass-delivered heavy-duty trucks, enabling lower energy consumption and longer range. Additionally, tailored to express logistics' "light cargo, high volume" characteristics, DeepWay pioneered an industry-first integrated chassis and battery swap design, supporting rapid battery swapping with highly integrated battery and chassis, significantly improving cargo space utilization by 9.6% over diesel-converted electric trucks, effectively enhancing single-trip transport efficiency and demonstrating clear competitive advantages in economics.
R&D Progress
01/
Insilico Medicine's Potential Best-in-Class NLRP3 Inhibitor ISM8969 Receives FDA Clinical Trial Approval
Insilico Medicine (03696.HK), a Qiming Venture Partners portfolio company and a clinical-stage generative AI-driven drug discovery and development company, announced that its oral NLRP3 inhibitor ISM8969 for inflammatory and neurodegenerative diseases has received Investigational New Drug (IND) approval from the FDA for Parkinson's disease treatment.
The upcoming Phase I clinical study aims to evaluate ISM8969's safety, tolerability, and pharmacokinetic profile in healthy subjects, and to identify the optimal recommended clinical dose for subsequent further study.
Dr. Carol Satler, Senior Vice President of Non-Oncology Clinical Development at Insilico Medicine, said: "NLRP3 has emerged as a key driver of chronic neuroinflammation and disease progression in neurodegenerative diseases. ISM8969 is an innovative NLRP3 inhibitor, empowered by Insilico Medicine's proprietary AI platform, with ideal blood-brain barrier penetration characteristics, holding the potential to open a new era in Parkinson's disease treatment. We are pleased to receive FDA approval to advance this novel therapy into human clinical trials, and hope to truly trigger a paradigm shift in new drug discovery through AI breakthroughs."
02/
Zenitar's Self-Developed Flumatinib Mesylate Receives Breakthrough Therapy Designation
Zenitar, a Qiming Venture Partners portfolio company, recently announced that its self-developed core product — Flumatinib Mesylate Tablets (FM) has been formally included in the Breakthrough Therapy Designation (BTD) program by the Center for Drug Evaluation (CDE). The proposed indications are BCR-ABL fusion gene (Ph)-negative myeloproliferative neoplasms (MPN), including myelofibrosis (MF), polycythemia vera (PV), and essential thrombocythemia (ET).
FM's inclusion in BTD signifies that the drug has demonstrated significant therapeutic potential in clinical studies for these indications. Following BTD inclusion, Zenitar can engage in more frequent and efficient communication with the CDE on Flumatinib Mesylate's development (such as submitting Class I consultation meeting applications), enabling exploration of more flexible clinical development strategies to accelerate market approval.
As a drug with the potential to transform the global MPN treatment landscape, Flumatinib Mesylate's consecutive recognition by both U.S. Orphan Drug and China Breakthrough Therapy authorities not only fully validates FM's outstanding clinical advantages and substantial unmet medical need, but also lays a solid foundation for the product's future global development and commercialization.
Technology Strength
01/
Unisound Launches Shanhai · Zhiyin 2.0
As the agent era arrives, Unisound, a Qiming Venture Partners portfolio company, has officially launched "Shanhai · Zhiyin" large model 2.0. Shanhai · Zhiyin 2.0 — built on Shanhai · Atlas's multimodal, cross-lingual base capabilities, bringing vertical professional agents like "Shanhai · Zhiyi" medical agent to millions of households — understanding professionalism and regional accents, conversing with familial warmth, and delivering extreme responsiveness are the three major capability evolutions in this upgrade.
The "Shanhai · Atlas" base architecture powering these technical breakthroughs achieves deep integration of multimodal large models with underlying computing platforms, building a complete perception-cognition-decision technology chain. This architecture transforms traditional speech processing modules into organic components of end-to-end large models, achieving smooth cross-scenario capability migration while maintaining professional-domain precision. Currently, the "Shanhai · Zhiyi" medical large model based on this architecture has completed 5.0 iteration, forming technical synergy with the newly released voice interaction system.
02/
Mech-Mind Founder Tianlan Shao Invited to World Economic Forum in Davos
On January 19, 2026, the 56th World Economic Forum Annual Meeting opened in Davos, Switzerland. At this year's Davos forum, Embodied Artificial Intelligence and physical AI became high-frequency topics in AI discussions. As a landmark innovative company in global Embodied Artificial Intelligence robotics, Mech-Mind, a Qiming Venture Partners portfolio company, was invited to this year's annual meeting, with Founder and CEO Tianlan Shao sharing insights on intelligent robots' key capabilities and development trends in industrial scenarios.
During the "Living Autonomously" thematic seminar held during Davos, Shao shared the stage with MIT CSAIL Director Professor Daniela Rus and others. He noted that compared to focusing on humanoid robots, physical AI is a broader and more practically significant concept. In manufacturing, logistics, and certain service scenarios, intelligent robot deployment is visibly accelerating, especially in tasks with clear boundaries and limited direct human interaction, where the technical conditions for large-scale application have largely matured.
Mech-Mind consistently adheres to a productization, ecosystem, and globalization development strategy, building standardized innovative products as the foundation, constructing a global localized operations system, collaborating with industry partners to advance Embodied Artificial Intelligence technology deployment, and continuously lowering the barrier to using intelligent robots in real-world scenarios. Currently, Mech-Mind has established subsidiaries in major markets including Germany, Japan, the United States, and South Korea, continuously participating in global industry exchanges and cooperation, demonstrating Chinese technology companies' technical strength and industrial value on the international stage.
Past Issues
Qiming Weekly · Ten Portfolio Company Updates Vol. 02, January 20, 2026
Founded in 2006, Qiming Venture Partners currently manages 11 USD funds and 7 RMB funds, with total assets under management reaching $9.5 billion. Since inception, the firm has focused on investing in outstanding early and growth-stage companies in Technology and Healthcare innovation.
To date, Qiming Venture Partners has invested in over 580 high-growth innovative companies, of which more than 210 have listed on the New York Stock Exchange, NASDAQ, Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Limited, Shanghai Stock Exchange, and Shenzhen Stock Exchange, or exited through M&A and other means. Over 80 portfolio companies have become recognized unicorns or super-unicorns in their industries.
Many Qiming Venture Partners portfolio companies have grown into the most influential companies in their respective fields, including Xiaomi (01810.HK), Meituan (03690.HK), Bilibili (NASDAQ: BILI, 09626.HK), Zhihu (NYSE: ZH, 02390.HK), Roborock (688169.SH), Hesai Technology (NASDAQ: HSAI, 02525.HK), UBTECH (09880.HK), WeRide (NASDAQ: WRD, 00800.HK), HyperStrong (688411.SH), Insta360 (688775.SH), Unisound (09678.HK), Biren Technology (06082.HK), Zhipu AI (02513.HK), Gan & Lee Pharmaceuticals (603087.SH), Tigermed (300347.SZ, 03347.HK), Zai Lab (NASDAQ: ZLAB, 09688.HK), CanSino Biologics (688185.SH, 06185.HK), Schrödinger (NASDAQ: SDGR), MicroPort EP MedTech (688617.SH), Sanyou Medical (688085.SH), Amoy Diagnostics (300685.SZ), SinoCellTech (688520.SH), Insilico Medicine (03696.HK), Hope Medicine, Yuanxin Technology, MediLink Therapeutics, LaNova Medicines, StepFun, and others.