Qiming Venture Partners Weekly: Top 10 Portfolio News Vol.32, Oct. 21, 2026
Celebrating milestone moments with you at Qiming Venture Partners' portfolio companies
Editor's Note: In 2026, the Qiming Weekly has been upgraded and refreshed, with regular weekly updates featuring only ten major developments from Qiming Venture Partners portfolio companies, covering funding progress and breakthroughs. In the wave of technology and innovation, every step entrepreneurs take deserves to be recorded. Qiming Venture Partners will continue to accelerate and empower entrepreneurs, and together with you, mark the milestone moments of our portfolio companies.
Major Partnerships
01/
Biren Technology Achieves Day-Zero Adaptation for StepFun's Step 5 Preview
Recently, Qiming Venture Partners portfolio company Biren Technology (06082.HK), a leading domestic general-purpose intelligent computing solutions provider, announced that based on the AI inference framework vLLM and BIRENSUPA™ software stack, it has completed the Day-0 adaptation of Step 5 Preview — the next-generation foundation model from fellow Qiming portfolio company StepFun — on its Bili™ series general-purpose GPUs. This achievement connects key pipelines including weight loading, service startup, and text generation, and completes functional and accuracy verification, providing developers and users with rapid deployment solutions.
Meanwhile, Biren Technology's self-developed full-stack multi-agent platform SUPACODE™ can automatically parse and adapt to key modules of Step 5 Preview including DSA, SummaryCache, and MoE, rapidly connecting the complete inference pipeline. Since January 2026, Biren Technology has successfully supported Day-0-level adaptation for dozens of leading large models.
02/
DeepWise and Unilever's AI4S Collaboration Bears Fruit in Consumer Product R&D
Recently, Qiming Venture Partners portfolio company DeepWise (DP Technology), an AI for Science enterprise, joined Unilever in showcasing two collaborative AI for Science R&D achievements on the 30th anniversary of Unilever China R&D Center. In antimicrobial active screening, the two parties leveraged AI models and experimental validation to discover three candidate molecules with strong antimicrobial activity from over 8,000 raw materials, with minimum inhibitory concentrations (MIC) of 0.01%–0.075% — significantly lower than the 0.36%–0.64% of phenoxyethanol, a commonly used preservative in the same tests. The related ingredients will be applied to Unilever's global innovation project with a scale of €170 million.
In the fabric care domain, DeepWise introduced its self-developed RiD (reinforced dynamics) method, studying interactions between fabric care agents, fibers, and water through high-throughput molecular dynamics simulations, establishing a computational screening workflow covering adsorption, dehydration, friction, and dielectric properties. The selected fabric care agents have been applied to new fabric care products launched by Unilever. The two parties' collaboration has lasted two years, and they jointly released an AI for Science innovation R&D platform during the 2025 World Artificial Intelligence Conference. DeepWise founder and CEO Weijie Sun stated that AI is gradually evolving from a tool serving individual scientific research tasks toward an intelligent R&D system covering more development stages.
Product Launches
01/
Hesai Technology Releases 3D World Data Engine Kosmo
Recently, Qiming Venture Partners portfolio company Hesai Technology (NASDAQ: HSAI; 02525.HK), a global leader in 3D perception technology, officially released the 3D world data engine Kosmo, simultaneously launching the world's first 8K ultra-high-definition AI spatial camera Kosmo One and the AI-driven cloud platform Kosmo World — marking an important step for Hesai Technology from LiDAR toward core infrastructure for physical AI. Kosmo One integrates ultra-high spatial resolution LiDAR, 8K ultra-high-definition imaging system, one-inch large-format CMOS, and high-precision IMU, achieving millimeter-level geometric accuracy, with ordinary indoor scenes scannable in approximately 15 minutes for 100 square meters.
Kosmo World can simultaneously generate three forms of 3D data — 3DGS, mesh, and depth — from a single reconstruction, transforming the real world into sim-ready data for embodied intelligence training, covering the full process from pre-training and post-training to evaluation and deployment. Taking Qiming portfolio company Sharpa Robotics' application at DQ ice cream stores as an example, Kosmo completes scanning and generates 3D training environments in approximately 15 minutes, improving robot task success rates to 99%. At the launch event, Hesai Technology's Kosmo signed strategic partnerships with fellow Qiming portfolio companies Galaxy Universal Robotics and Yuanli Lingji, and showcased industry cases in collaboration with Pixar's RenderMan and Amap.
02/
Axera Releases AX8860 High-Compute Edge AI Chip Series
Recently, Qiming Venture Partners portfolio company Axera (00600.HK), a leading AI chip company, officially launched the AX8860 high-compute series at the 2026 China International Industry Fair. As an AI chip purpose-built for large model deployment at the edge and on-device, the AX8860 combines 256 TOPS of mixed-precision compute (with native FP4 support) and 273 GB/s memory bandwidth, equipped with 128 GB of LPDDR5X high-capacity memory, supporting AXLink cascading and PCIe 5.0 high-speed interconnect, with 64-channel video decoding and 16-channel video encoding capabilities, manufactured on advanced 6nm process.
Centered around the AX8860, Axera simultaneously released the Yuanxi module A256S, and unveiled the Yuanxi series inference cards and inference servers, supporting diverse model applications including LLM, VLM, and Omni. The product provides developers with comprehensive toolchains and open-source software, supporting mainstream inference frameworks such as vLLM, SGLang, and PyTorch, and offers OpenAI API-compatible service interfaces. Axera founder and chairperson Dr. Xiaoxin Qiu stated: "We aim to be our customers' long-term, stable compute foundation, allowing enterprises to focus on business innovation without worrying about compute migration."
03/
Insilico Medicine Unveils Full-Stack Pharma.AI Scientific AI Capabilities
Recently, Qiming Venture Partners portfolio company Insilico Medicine (03696.HK), a generative AI-driven clinical-stage biotech company, held its 2026 Pharma.AI Autumn Webinar, showcasing an interconnected suite of scientific AI capabilities: MMAI Gym for transforming foundation models into domain-specific scientific models, benchmarking to help researchers evaluate model performance, Generative Biologics, Chemistry42, and PandaOmics providing scientific tools, and MCP connecting these tools to AI assistants. The company stated that its models achieve or surpass state-of-the-art results on over 70 chemistry and biology benchmark tasks.
The webinar also introduced the 2.6-billion-parameter compact chemistry model LFM2-2.6B-MMAI developed in partnership with Liquid AI, an age-aware multi-agent simulation platform "Virtual Senescent Cell," as well as Generative Biologics epitope prediction workflows and new PandaOmics capabilities. On the URSA-expert-2026 benchmark comprising 100 targets, Chemistry42 retrosynthetic analysis combined with ChemCensor achieved a 55% Solv-2 score. Through MCP, compatible clients including Codex, Claude Code, and Cursor can directly invoke Pharma.AI platform tools.
04/
Shengshu Technology Releases Video Generation Model Vidu Q4 Preview
Recently, Qiming Venture Partners portfolio company Shengshu Technology, a multimodal generation and world model enterprise, released the first preview version of its next-generation flagship video generation model, Vidu Q4 Preview. The model features further upgrades in character performance, cinematic language, and complex visual effects, supporting up to 15 reference images and 3 reference audio segments, with 2K and 4K output support, available at a launch promotional price starting from ¥0.09 per second.
Currently, Vidu Q4 Preview supports image-to-video and reference-based video generation, enhancing control over creative elements including characters, scenes, costumes, props, and sound through multi-image and multi-audio references, while strengthening coordination between character emotions, movements, and shot pacing. Shengshu Technology co-founder and CEO Yihang Luo stated that the company aims to continuously translate model efficiency into lower barriers to use, enabling more individuals, teams, and enterprises to access and afford the technology.
Technological Strength
01/
Pluslife Tuberculosis Detection Solution Selected for TIME's Best Inventions of 2026
Recently, Qiming Venture Partners portfolio company Pluslife, a molecular diagnostics innovator, announced that its tuberculosis detection solution MiniDock MTB Test has been selected for TIME magazine's Best Inventions of 2026 in the healthcare category. In the more than two-decade history of this list, this marks the first time a Chinese in vitro diagnostic product has been included as a standalone entry. TIME noted in its review that the solution enables tuberculosis detection through sputum or tongue swab samples using a compact, portable, battery-powered device.
The solution was designed from the outset with grassroots usage conditions in mind: reagents can be transported and stored at room temperature, the handheld instrument can be powered by battery or mobile power supply, the entire workflow requires no precision pipetting, and results are available in approximately 30 minutes. In February 2026, the solution received WHO recommendation, becoming the first globally recommended solution in the WHO NPOC-NAATs tuberculosis detection category. In April, the New England Journal of Medicine published its seven-country study. Supported by the Global Fund and the Children's Investment Fund Foundation, the solution is being rolled out in 13 countries, with plans to complete nearly 3 million tests by the end of 2026.
02/
SinoUnited Health Professor Shen Qu Named to World's Top 2% Scientists List
Recently, Professor Shen Qu, director and chief specialist of the Endocrinology, Metabolism and Thyroid Center and head of the Weight and Metabolic Management Center at Qiming Venture Partners portfolio company SinoUnited Health, was named to the 2026 "World's Top 2% Scientists" annual scientific impact list, jointly published by Stanford University and Elsevier. His academic contributions in obesity, lipid metabolism, and thyroid diseases have garnered international scholarly attention.
Professor Shen Qu has worked in clinical endocrinology and metabolism for over 40 years. He currently serves as standing committee member of the Endocrinology Branch of the Chinese Medical Association and head of the Obesity Study Group, having led the development of multiple national consensus statements and guidelines including the Multidisciplinary Clinical Consensus on Obesity Diagnosis and Treatment (2021 Edition), and has published over 200 SCI papers as first or corresponding author. Since joining SinoUnited Health, he has led the establishment of the Weight and Metabolic Management Center, assembling a multidisciplinary team spanning endocrinology, nutrition, and exercise rehabilitation to provide individualized, longitudinally followable diagnostic and treatment pathways for patients with overweight, obesity, and comorbid metabolic abnormalities.
03/
Mech-Mind Exhibits 20 Intelligent Applications at CIIF for Eighth Consecutive Year
Recently, Qiming Venture Partners portfolio company Mech-Mind (09615.HK), a global leading supplier of intelligent robot components, appeared at the 26th China International Industry Fair — the company's eighth consecutive year exhibiting. With a booth area of 300 square meters, Mech-Mind showcased 20 intelligent applications covering multiple robot forms including industrial robotic arms and humanoid robots, spanning embodied intelligence scenarios such as intelligent grasping, sorting, assembly, gluing, and quality inspection, across more than ten industries including automotive, 3C/semiconductor, new energy, machining, and logistics.
All exhibited applications are based on Mech-Mind's self-developed general-purpose "eye-brain-hand" technology system. Among them, relying on the embodied brain centered on the Mech-GPT multimodal large model, humanoid robots can understand natural language instructions and electronic bin labels, real-time recognize categories among hundreds of randomly placed objects and adjust sorting strategies, with dual arms and Mech-Hand dexterous hands coordinating to complete precise grasping and sorting, demonstrating generalized manipulation capabilities for unknown objects and open categories.
R&D Progress
Pinnacle Medicines Establishes Industry-University-Research Collaboration with Tsinghua University School of Pharmaceutical Sciences
Recently, Qiming Venture Partners portfolio company Pinnacle Medicines, a next-generation oral peptide drug R&D enterprise, held a donation ceremony and academic exchange symposium at Tsinghua University, formally establishing an industry-university-research R&D collaboration with the Tsinghua University School of Pharmaceutical Sciences. Pinnacle Medicines will support Professor Feng Qian's research group in oral peptide drug innovation research through scientific research donations. The two parties will jointly tackle core oral peptide technologies, addressing industry bottlenecks such as poor predictive capability of animal models for human absorption and high costs of primate experiments that constrain R&D efficiency.
Founded in 2024, Pinnacle Medicines' core team has R&D backgrounds at multinational pharmaceutical companies including Merck & Co. and Johnson & Johnson, and made key contributions to several recently launched blockbuster oral peptide drugs. Its core pipeline is expected to enter clinical stages in March 2027. Pinnacle Medicines chief scientist Dr. Chengzao Sun stated that breakthroughs in oral peptides cannot be separated from foundational scientific support, and expressed hope in bridging the translational gap between basic research and drug development. Tsinghua University School of Pharmaceutical Sciences dean Professor Feng Qian stated that university research should address actual industrial needs, and hoped that university-enterprise collaboration can crack key scientific challenges in the field.
Previous Issues
Science2Startup Debuts in China, Helping Great Science Become Great Companies
Dialogue | AI Compute Reconstruction: The Path of AI Chip Innovation from Cloud to Edge | WAIC 2026
Qiming Venture Partners was founded in 2006. Currently, the firm manages 11 USD funds and 7 RMB funds, with total assets under management reaching $9.5 billion. Since its inception, Qiming Venture Partners has focused on investing in outstanding early and growth-stage companies in the Technology and Healthcare sectors.
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, Shanghai Stock Exchange, and Shenzhen Stock Exchange, or exited through mergers and acquisitions. Over 80 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 (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), APT Medical (688617.SH), Sanyou Medical (688085.SH), AmoyDx (300685.SZ), Sinocelltech (688520.SH), Insilico Medicine (03696.HK), AusperBio, Yuanxin Technology, MediLink Therapeutics, Leads Biolabs, StepFun, and others.