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Reallusion Expands to a Complete Human-Centric Simulation Solution

SAN JOSE, Calif., Jan. 29, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Most simulation pipelines can model facilities, equipment, and routing with high accuracy—but often miss a key driver of real-world performance: human operations. Operator cycle-time variation, work sequence differences, and station placement/material flow can materially impact throughput and safety, yet human behavior is still commonly simplified into idealized paths.

Reallusion connects everything it has built into a complete simulation workflow with the latest launch of Motion Planning.
Reallusion connects everything it has built into a complete simulation workflow with the latest launch of Motion Planning.

Reallusion has been closing that gap through years of collaboration with enterprise teams and world-class brands—building a simulation-ready, real-time stack designed to replicate real-world scenarios with believable, repeatable human operations.

With the latest launch of Motion Planning, Reallusion connects everything it has built into a complete simulation workflow. It adds a modular, scalable logic layer that links people, actions, and environments—so teams can run large-scale, human-centric simulations that are logical, repeatable, and easy to validate.

Check out the full trailer

A Complete Simulation Solution for Replicating the Real World

Reallusion provides a connected set of tools that scale from individual human actions to system-level, repeatable simulation logic:

1) Control an individual human’s actions

  • Motion Director: control characters in real-time with motion triggers and behavior controls for responsive, natural actions.
  • Personal Mobility: recreate how people travel with different transport devices, capturing natural speed, spacing, and movement patterns for pedestrian and mobility scenarios. For example, an operator pushing a trolley

2) Control groups and movement at scale

  • Crowd Sim: create crowd movement, density, and flow for large-scale scenarios.

3) Simulate human interaction with tools and the environment

  • Prop Interaction: simulate task-level interactions with equipment, stations, and objects (operate, pick/place, handle).
  • Smart Accessory: built-in rules assign the right tools (and variations) to the right people at scale for realistic working conditions.

4) Build the environment context

  • BuildingGen: generate buildings, interiors, warehouses, and production lines quickly from customizable blueprints and packaged modules to stand up a layout context for scenario testing.
  • Prop Distribution: place and standardize assets across scenes for consistent, repeatable setups.

5) Orchestrate everything with modular logic at scale

  • Motion Planning: connect workflows across areas with modular, reusable logic—so you can run large scenarios with hundreds of people, repeatedly.

The Industry’s Largest Asset Ecosystem for Any Simulation Scenario

Reallusion’s solution is supported by the largest asset ecosystem in the industry—led by ActorCore, which provides premium simulation-ready digital humans, props, and motion assets for operational workflows. Combined with Reallusion’s Content Store and Marketplace for additional props and environments, teams can stand up scenarios faster, standardize assets across repeated runs, and adapt to different sites and industries—without spending cycles building everything from scratch.

With assets spanning a wide range of use cases—from factory operations and facility planning to driving and public-space scenarios—teams can quickly find the right people, equipment, and motions for the simulation they need.

What’s New: Motion Planning Makes Simulation Modular and Scalable

Motion Planning is a major step forward because it turns simulations into reusable systems, not one-off scenes. At its core is an intuitive node-graph workflow that makes simulation logic visual and easy to manage—so teams can build, review, and expand behaviors without getting buried in scripting.

With Motion Planning, teams can:

  • Reuse modular building blocks: assemble scenarios fast and standardize proven setups
  • Connect multiple areas into one flow: link zones, lines, and routes into a continuous simulation
  • Iterate and compare changes quickly: test layout/process updates and run repeatable before/after comparisons
  • Scale without losing control: expand to higher-volume runs while keeping logic consistent and maintainable
  • Validate with measurable feedback: use logs and on-screen indicators for real-time review and analysis

In short, Motion Planning adds a visual, modular layer that helps teams iterate faster, stay organized as projects grow, and scale simulations with confidence.

Capture Real-World Human Operations with Video Mocap

To increase fidelity and enable flexible customization, the newly released Video Mocap turns standard video footage of real operations into editable 3D motion. It’s a practical way to capture actual operator work sequences and cycle times—using ordinary cameras, without specialized motion-capture hardware—so teams can simulate more realistic handling, walk paths, and handoffs for more credible validation and comparison.

Proven Across Industries

Reallusion’s human-centric simulation solution has been adopted across digital twins, AV simulation, security and surveillance, consumer electronics, and pedestrian traffic—by teams at brands including NVIDIA, Google, Samsung, LG, BMW, Ford, Toyota, Hyundai, GM, Motorola, and Axis Communications.

Building on that foundation, the latest Motion Planning and Video Mocap updates have also been evaluated with industry partners: Delta Electronics and Foxconn—global industrial leaders in electronics and manufacturing—used the workflow to support plant planning, while relative.berlin—a Berlin-based CG/AI studio known for immersive (VR/AR) experiences—evaluated it through a VR immersive experience project for the German government.

Integration-Ready for Digital Twin Pipelines

For teams building in existing digital twin projects, Reallusion also supports smooth downstream USD workflows to NVIDIA Omniverse (and other DCC/real-time tools).digital humans, props, lights, and cameras can be transferred efficiently—supporting collaboration, review, and optimization in the environments many digital twin teams already use.

Reallusion’s Vision for Simulations

Reallusion delivers the most realistic human factors available for simulation, so digital twins and operational models can reflect how people actually work in the real world. From subtle individual behavior to large-scale operational scenarios, Reallusion’s system combines human realism with modular, logic-driven workflows—helping teams replicate real operations as closely as possible, from quick what-if studies to scalable, validation-ready simulation runs across industries and use cases.

Book a live demo with Reallusion’s team

Resources for Faster Industrial Setup

In practice, scaling human-centric simulation depends on reusable modules and interactions that teams can standardize across scenarios. Alongside the free starter content included in iClone, Reallusion provides Motion Planning content packs that accelerate industrial scenario buildout and offer consistent starting points:

Ready-made factory scenarios: 12 factory scenarios (Assembly, Production, Transport, Maintenance, Inspection, and more), plus 25 interactive machines/tools and 73 worker action motions—so teams can assemble, modify, and test factory workflows faster without building everything from scratch.

Interactive industrial devices: 15 interactive devices (valves, levers, control panels, and more) that digital humans can operate precisely—enabling realistic, orderly interactions with factory equipment for more credible industrial simulations.

These resources help teams move from proof-of-concept to repeatable scenarios faster—without having to author every template and interaction from scratch.

NYSE Content Advisory: Pre-Market Update + York Space Systems to Debut on NYSE After IPO

NEW YORK, Jan. 29, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) provides a daily pre-market update directly from the NYSE Trading Floor. Access today’s NYSE Pre-market update for market insights before trading begins. 

 

NYSE Content Advisory: Pre-Market Update + York Space Systems to Debut on NYSE After IPO

Kristen Scholer delivers the pre-market update on January 29th

  • U.S. equities are slightly higher as traders digest Meta and Microsoft earnings and the Fed’s decision to keep rates unchanged, with the S&P 500 hitting a record above 7,000.
  • York Space Systems goes public today at the NYSE, pricing shares at $34 for a $4.3B valuation; the executive team, including CEO Dirk Wallinger, will ring the opening bell.
  • The NYSE continues its focus on the space sector with its upcoming Space Summit on Feb. 23, while today’s NYSE Live will feature Ray Wong discussing tech earnings and AI spending at Meta.

Opening Bell
York Space Systems celebrates its IPO

Closing Bell
HBO’s Industry to launch their new season

Click here to download the NYSE TV App 

 

DORCO Wins 2025 GOOD DESIGN® Award; Global Traction Continues for the Flagship Razor

Following GOOD DESIGN® recognition, early sales momentum and consumer adoption underscore DORCO’s global flagship product  

SEOUL, South Korea, Jan. 29, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — DORCO, South Korea’s leading shaving brand, today announced that its flagship razor DORCO SLEEK has received a 2025 GOOD DESIGN® Awards from Chicago Athenaeum: Museum of Architecture and Design, in the Personal Category for Global Flagship Razor Development. Following this recognition, SLEEK is gaining meaningful market traction across key markets, supported by strong sales performance and positive consumer response. This momentum highlights how DORCO’s design-led development approach is translating into real-world consumer adoption.

DORCO SLEEK, featuring a matte-metal handle and a multi-flex head for precise control.
DORCO SLEEK, featuring a matte-metal handle and a multi-flex head for precise control.

The GOOD DESIGN® Awards recognition reflects SLEEK’s focus on practical problem-solving through design, balancing refined aesthetics with everyday usability. These qualities are also reinforced by consumer feedback, with verified purchasers citing smooth glide, reduced skin irritation, and consistent shaving performance in everyday use.

Developed in collaboration with Prime Studio, SLEEK was created to elevate DORCO’s presence on the global stage by creating a flagship product built for the next generation. The process began with consumer persona research across Europe, Asia, and North America, which guided the overall design and CMF (Color, Material, Finish) decisions.

Building on these insights, the team defined three visual directions—”Crafted with Care,” “Simple Complexity,” and “Lightness of Touch”—which were translated into 2D-rendered concepts inspired by precise details from premium hand tools, exposed connector details, and the tactile qualities of different materials. Through numerous reviews with DORCO and testing against persona benchmarks, nine initial concepts were refined into three leading directions that ultimately shaped the final SLEEK razor.

SLEEK is designed to deliver a close, smooth shave while minimizing skin irritation.Built on DORCO’s newest blade engineering technology, key innovations include the Super Thin Blade, Thin Edge Blade technology, and patented coating technology for durability and consistent performance. For added comfort and control, SLEEK features a SmoothShield+ lubricating strip (made with Vitamin E and aloe), a Micro Rubber Fin Guard Bar, and multi-flex head engineered for stable skin contact and precision.

“SLEEK represents the pinnacle of our blade technology,” said the Head of Product Development Division at DORCO. “By combining Thin Edge Blade engineering with our patented coating, SLEEK delivers superior cutting performance and a shave that is both smooth and gentle.”

SLEEK is available across DORCO’s key growth markets, supported by tailored partnerships and campaigns. In the U.S., SLEEK launched in March 2025 on Amazon, supported by a brand collaboration with Evan Mock. In the UAE, following its June 2025 debut, the product expanded across both online and offline retail channels, achieving strong launch-month sales performance and a leading position in the system razor category.

Meanwhile, DORCO continues to invest in blade engineering and manufacturing capabilities, applying its technical expertise to develop grooming products focused on performance, comfort, and everyday usability.

Customer Testimonials

Verified purchase reviews highlight SLEEK’s smooth shaving performance, comfort, and overall quality, reinforcing its position as a high-performance razor designed for everyday use.

“The shave is incredibly smooth and close, with no tugging or irritation. The pivoting head adjusts naturally to facial contours, making areas like the jawline and chin much easier to shave.”

“The razor feels solid and well-balanced in the hand, even when wet — it feels premium and stable to hold.”

“It delivers a clean shave in a single pass, and the blades attach and detach easily.”

About DORCO

Founded in 1955, DORCO has been a global leader in developing and manufacturing innovative razor products worldwide. We continue to push the boundaries of shaving technology. DORCO’s diverse range of razors combines cutting-edge blade innovation with ergonomic designs, delivering the smoothest, most comfortable shave on the market. With a commitment to quality, craftsmanship, and sustainability, DORCO enriches the shaving experience for millions of customers across 100+ countries.

LEIFRAS Co., Ltd. Awarded Contract to Manage Community-Based Club Activities at Monbetsu Municipal Junior High Schools in Hokkaido

Supporting the Shift of Club Activity Management from Schools to Local Communities Through the “Monbetsu Model”

TOKYO, Jan. 29, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — LEIFRAS Co., Ltd. (Nasdaq: LFS) (the “Company” or “Leifras”), a sports and social business company dedicated to youth sports and community engagement, announced today that it has been awarded a contract by Monbetsu City, Hokkaido to provide community-based club activity management and operation services (the “Contract”).

Pursuant to the Contract, the Company will operate and manage a community-based club in Monbetsu City starting April 2026.

Contract Overview

Client: Monbetsu City, Hokkaido
Contract Period: April 2026March 2029

Background

In Monbetsu City, the declining birthrate has led to shrinking participation in school club activities. Team sports, in particular, are facing disbandment due to a lack of members, reducing students’ options of extracurricular activities.

To address this situation, junior high schools in Monbetsu City are transitioning school club activities to a community-based model. Starting in the 2026 school year, community-based clubs are expected to replace school-based club activities.

For the past two years, Leifras has been involved in designing a system for community-based club activities in Monbetsu City and has established the “Monbetsu Model,” a community-based club activity model for sparsely populated areas.

Starting this year, Leifras plans to work with Monbetsu City to further develop the “Monbetsu Model” as a new club activity support project that will combine the management and implementation of community-based clubs.

By joining community-based clubs that bring together students from three municipal junior high schools in Monbetsu City, students are expected to be able to choose their favorite sports and activities from a wide range of club activities, offering opportunities for them to continue enjoying sports.

Mr. Kiyotaka Ito, the Representative Director and Chief Executive Officer of Leifras, commented, “We are honored to be awarded this contract by the Monbetsu City and to support the expansion of community-based club activities beginning in 2026. Leifras remains committed to providing a safe and secure environment for junior high school students in Monbetsu City to connect with friends from other schools and enjoy sports, and to turn community-based club activities into new educational opportunities within Monbetsu City. Looking ahead, we also aim to accept students from neighboring cities and towns, and develop the community-based club into a core club.”

Growth and Achievements in the School Club Support Business

Leifras has been supporting school clubs since before the nationwide call for localization of club activities, and has earned the trust of local governments across Japan. The Company’s financial results for the nine months ended September 30, 2025 also reflected the high demand for school club support, with social business sales increasing 36.4% year-on-year and the number of schools contracted for club activities increasing 53.2% year-on-year, demonstrating continued rapid growth.

Related key metrics for the nine months ended September 30, 2025 include:

  • Social business sales: JPY 2,358.6 million (+36.4% year-on-year)
  • Number of schools contracted for club activities: 360 schools (+53.2% year-on-year)

Selected Major Contracted Projects in Fiscal Year 2025

Leifras has seen an increase in large-scale projects, including multi-year contracts, primarily in urban areas and major municipalities. Notable examples include:

  • Nagoya City, Aichi Prefecture (14 wards, including Chikusa and Showa): New athletic and cultural activity programs at Nagoya City elementary schools
  • Nagoya City, Aichi Prefecture: Nagoya Club Activities Talent Bank Outsourcing Project
  • Minato Ward, Tokyo: Club activity coaching services
  • Suita City, Osaka Prefecture: Club activity management and operation services at Suita City junior high schools

About LEIFRAS Co., Ltd.

Headquartered in Tokyo, Leifras is a sports and social business company dedicated to youth sports and community engagement. The Company primarily provides services related to the organization and operations of sports schools and sports events for children. As of December 31, 2024, Leifras was recognized as one of Japan’s largest operators of children’s sports schools in terms of both membership and facilities by Tokyo Shoko Research. The Company’s approach to sports education emphasizes the development of non-cognitive skills, following the teaching principle “acknowledge, praise, encourage, and motivate.” The holistic approach that integrates physical and mental development sets Leifras apart in the industry. Building upon deep experience and know-how in sports education, Leifras also operates a robust social business sector, dispatching sports coaches to meet various community needs with the aim to promote physical health, social inclusion, and community well-being across different demographics. For more information, please visit the Company’s website: https://ir.leifras.co.jp/.

Forward-Looking Statements

Certain statements in this announcement are forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties and are based on the Company’s current expectations and projections about future events that the Company believes may affect its financial condition, results of operations, business strategy, and financial needs. Investors can find many (but not all) of these statements by the use of words such as “approximates,” “believes,” “hopes,” “expects,” “anticipates,” “estimates,” “projects,” “intends,” “plans,” “will,” “would,” “should,” “could,” “may,” or other similar expressions in this press release. The Company undertakes no obligation to update or revise publicly any forward-looking statements to reflect subsequent occurring events or circumstances, or changes in its expectations, except as may be required by law. These statements are subject to uncertainties and risks, including, but not limited to, the uncertainties related to market conditions, and other factors discussed in the “Risk Factors” section of the registration statement filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”). Although the Company believes that the expectations expressed in these forward-looking statements are reasonable, it cannot assure you that such expectations will turn out to be correct, and the Company cautions investors that actual results may differ materially from the anticipated results and encourages investors to review other factors that may affect its future results in the registration statement and other filings with the SEC. Additional factors are discussed in the Company’s filings with the SEC, which are available for review at www.sec.gov.

For more information, please contact:

LEIFRAS Co., Ltd.
Investor Relations Department
Email: IR@leifras.co.jp

Ascent Investor Relations LLC
Tina Xiao
Phone: +1-646-932-7242
Email: investors@ascent-ir.com

Building Accessible Over-Ear ANC Experiences: QCY’s Vision Reflected Through H3S

HONG KONG, Jan. 29, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — QCY has introduced H3S, the latest update to its H3 over-ear headphone series, reinforcing the brand’s commitment to making advanced noise-canceling audio more accessible to everyday users. Building on the strengths of the H3 line—strong noise cancellation, immersive sound, and all-day comfort—the H3S brings meaningful improvements in ANC performance, audio tuning, endurance, and ergonomics, shaped around practical listening scenarios.

Over-ear active noise-canceling headsets are becoming an integral part of modern life. From daily commutes and remote work to study sessions and moments of leisure, expectations for audio products have evolved beyond functionality alone—toward experiences that blend seamlessly into everyday living. Guided by long-standing user insight and a consistent product philosophy, QCY has responded to this shift. H3S embodies that vision: an over-ear active noise-canceling headset designed for real-world use and built to fit naturally into daily life.

QCY H3S
QCY H3S

From Brand Philosophy to Product Experience

Within QCY’s growing lineup of over-ear noise-cancelling headsets, H3S is designed for everyday listening at its best. Rather than catering to niche enthusiasts, it focuses on what matters most—balanced performance, all-day comfort, and dependable noise cancellation, delivered with clarity and ease.

H3S is shaped by real-world use. Its active noise cancellation helps reduce distractions in daily environments—from commuting and shared offices to home workspaces—while its lightweight, comfortable design supports extended listening without fatigue. The experience isn’t about total isolation, but about creating a calmer, more focused sound space that feels natural throughout the day.

This philosophy reflects QCY’s long-standing approach to accessible audio. Guided by how people actually listen, the brand designs products that feel intuitive, reliable, and comfortable. H3S embodies this vision—thoughtfully engineered to fit seamlessly into everyday life.

Designing for How People Actually Listen

“For us, innovation isn’t about adding complexity for its own sake,” said a spokesperson for QCY. “H3S reflects our belief that good audio should feel natural, comfortable, and easy to integrate into everyday routines. We want users to put on their headphones and enjoy the experience, without having to think about the technology behind it.”

Since its introduction to global markets, H3S has played a key role in expanding QCY’s presence across North America, Latin America, and select regions in Asia. Engagement has centered on the product’s everyday strengths—long-term comfort, refined tuning, and practical value—underscoring the brand’s belief that well-considered design resonates far beyond niche audiences.

Viewed within QCY’s broader over-ear ANC strategy, H3S is not a momentary release, but a foundation. As hybrid work, mobile routines, and flexible lifestyles continue to redefine listening habits, QCY remains focused on building audio solutions that adapt quietly and seamlessly. In this context, H3S stands as both a product and a statement of the brand’s long-term direction in consumer audio.

A Long-Term View on Over-Ear ANC

Looking ahead, QCY will continue to invest in refining over-ear ANC experiences around real user scenarios. By focusing on relevance, comfort, and thoughtful design, the brand aims to build long-term trust with listeners worldwide. H3S marks an important step in that journey—demonstrating how brand philosophy and product experience can come together to support everyday listening on a global scale.

Learn more about QCY H3S here: https://www.qcy.com/products/qcy-h3s 

About QCY
QCY is a premier audio brand, established in 2009. As a global leader in wireless audio technology, QCY boasts over 200 technology research and development engineers and operates a comprehensive ecosystem integrating production, research and development, sales, and an audio testing laboratory. The brand’s distribution channels span across the globe. For more information about QCY and its brands and products, please visit qcy.com.

PR Contact
Violet, Public Relations Manager, QCY
pr@qcyearphone.com
Rice, Marketing Director, QCY
Rice@qcyearphone.com

Lorikeet Launches Coach: The First AI That Tells You Why Your Support Metrics Move – And Fixes the Problem

Coach evaluates 100% of support conversations, diagnoses performance issues, and implements fixes

SYDNEY, Jan. 29, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Lorikeet, the company that helps businesses create universal AI concierges for their customers, today announced the launch of Coach, an AI co-worker that partners with CX teams to help them understand their performance, diagnose why metrics changed, and automatically fix issues that arise.

Coach is your agent to improve customer experience performance. It reviews every ticket, whether handled by humans, AI, or both. It surfaces why performance is trending up or down, proposes fixes, and, with approval, implements them. For teams tired of manually reading through tickets to diagnose why CSAT dropped, Coach does the diagnostic work for you.

“Support ops teams are flying blind,” said Steve Hind, CEO of Lorikeet. “They can see aggregate metrics like CSAT, response times, or AI resolution rates, but often have to spend hours – often hours they don’t have – trying to understand root causes and what actions will improve performance.”

From Insight to Action
Most analytics tools stop at telling you there’s a problem. Coach closes the loop.

Coach is an agent you talk to, not a dashboard you check. Teams can ask questions in natural language, like “why did CSAT drop last week?” or “show me the worst-performing tickets on refunds,” and get answers directly. Coach connects into Slack, ChatGPT, and Claude, meeting ops teams where they already work.

“We’re building for a world where the agent is the interface,” said Hind. “Instead of clicking through reports, you ask questions. Instead of manually diagnosing issues, you review Coach’s analysis. The operations team’s job shifts from doing the work to directing it.”

How Lorikeet Coach Works
Coach helps set up your Lorikeet configuration. Conversationally explain what you need, and Coach can configure your customer-facing Lorikeet Concierge to interact with your customers, call tools, and execute tasks.

Coach evaluates every conversation against your quality standards, scores them on a customizable rubric, and tracks how performance varies by topic, agent, channel, and time. 100% coverage, not sampling.

Coach answers questions and makes the data accessible to anyone in your organization through Slack, ChatGPT, or Claude.

When Coach identifies a gap, it proposes a fix. For Lorikeet customers, it can test changes in simulation and deploy them with one click. Coach also generates realistic customer profiles and scenarios based on your ticket patterns so teams can run workflows dozens of times and fix issues before customers are affected.

Coach Deployed for Healthtech Support Insights
HotDoc, a healthcare platform used by over 13 million patients, partnered with Lorikeet for Coach’s automated QA and topic analysis capabilities.

“Our CX and Product teams needed deeper systematic support insights, but between inconsistent tagging and PII restrictions in Zendesk, we couldn’t deliver reliable analysis,” said Dan Marshall, CX Operations Lead at HotDoc. “Coach’s combination of automated QA and thematic analysis is solving both problems – this will help us track quality metrics while simultaneously surfacing the themes that matter to both our clinics and our patients.”

Built for Modern Support Operations
Coach was built for the reality most companies now face: a mix of human agents, AI agents, and hybrid workflows with no unified way to measure quality across all of them.

“Traditional QA was built for sampling a small percentage of human conversations,” said Hind. “But whether you’re scaling AI, managing a human team, or running both, you need complete coverage and consistent quality standards. Coach gives you one system for all of it and allows you to compare your human and AI support with the same tool.”

Aligned Incentives: Lorikeet’s Quality Guarantee
To further enhance Lorikeet’s resolution-based pricing, Lorikeet has committed to refunding charges for any tickets handled by its AI that fail review by Coach.

“We’re putting our money where our mouth is,” said Hind. “If our AI fails your quality standards, you shouldn’t pay for it. Coach makes that accountability possible.”

Availability
Coach is available to all Lorikeet customers across North America, EMEA, and Asia-Pacific. It is also launched as a standalone product for companies using any customer support solution who want complete visibility into their conversation quality.

To learn more or request a demo, visit www.lorikeetcx.ai

About Lorikeet
Lorikeet builds AI customer concierges. Founded in Australia and backed by QED Investors, Blackbird, Square Peg, and Airtree, Lorikeet serves customers such as Airwallex, Taptap Send, and Eucalyptus across healthcare, fintech, and other regulated industries. Learn more at www.lorikeetcx.ai

Media Contact:
Tess Pawlisch
608-333-9788
lorikeet@needlepr.com

Over 80 Global, Nordic, Baltic and Arctic CEOs and Leaders of Industry, Finance, Technology and Science Meet in Stockholm to Launch The Origination Finance Studios

“New Nordics” Economy Becomes Center of Gravity for Global Platform to Accelerate European Productivity, Values-Based Good Growth and Business Cooperation

Stockholm Business Summit Follows Week of Davos Tumult that Catapults Nordic and Arctic Countries to Geopolitical Center Stage of Strategic Competition

STOCKHOLM, Jan. 29, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Over 80 global, Nordic, Baltic and Arctic community business leaders, regional academic, science and technology innovators gathered in Stockholm’ historic Grand Hotel, 28-29 January, days after Davos tumult over U.S.-European relations, Greenland and tariff tensions. Leading Nordic, Baltic and Fortune 500 business figures converged to launch The Origination Finance Studios, a global convening platform to expedite business and societal scale dialogue and solution sets. The Origination Finance Studios will be anchored in the ascendent Nordic-Baltic economic leadership space to accelerate new financial models and industry blueprints needed to re-engineer long-term healthy growth and prosperity – for the many rather than the few. Building upon Stockholm’s historic industrial and banking strengths and its status as Europe’s new “capital of capital” for the reinvigoration of European markets’ ($113 billion in fresh capital raised in the past five years alone), today’s Origination Finance Studio and future convenings will expand to strategic geographies especially in the Global South, with India first, among others.

Origination Finance Studio Stockholm Launches With "New Nordics" Global Campaign: Professor Phoebe Koundouri, Dr Osvald Bjelland, Risto Siilasmaa, H.E. Mikaela Kumlin-Granit, Bridget Fawcett, Christian Rynning-Tønnesen, Henrik Henriksson and Professor Caroline Flammer
Origination Finance Studio Stockholm Launches With “New Nordics” Global Campaign: Professor Phoebe Koundouri, Dr Osvald Bjelland, Risto Siilasmaa, H.E. Mikaela Kumlin-Granit, Bridget Fawcett, Christian Rynning-Tønnesen, Henrik Henriksson and Professor Caroline Flammer

Distinguished participants include Henrik Henriksson, CEO of Stegra, Sweden’s green steel scale-up, Hans Vestberg, Board Member of Blackrock and former Chair & CEO of Verizon, Jakob Stausholm, former CEO of Rio Tinto, Niclas Mårtensson, CEO, Stena Line Group, Annette Selmeier, Co-Founder, Effective Energy Invest GmbH, Risto Siilasmaa, Founder of F-Secure and former Chair and Interim CEO of Nokia, Tõnis Saar, Director of NATO’s Cooperative Cyber Defense Center of Excellence (CCDCoE), Line Gordon, Director of the Stockholm Resilience Center, Liza Jonson, CEO Swedbank Robur, and Bridget Fawcett, Global Head, Sustainability & Corporate Transitions Investment Banking at CITI.

Origination Founder, Dr Osvald Magne Bjelland, and the Origination team have drawn together many of the world’s most creative business minds, scientific, and industry thinkers. The Finance Studio approach emerges out of Bjelland’s #1 Amazon Bestseller Book, HOPE for Life on Our Planet: Inspiration for Seven Generations, a two-year undertaking to distill the insights of over 60 co-authors from business, scientific, environment, artistic and religious leaders from around the world including three Nobel Peace Laureates – two-time president of Costa Rica Óscar Arias Sánchez, Iran’s Narges Mohammadi, and Ukraine’s Oleksandra Matviichuk – and business luminaries, such as Natarajan Chandrasekaran, Chairman of Tata Sons, Hans Vestberg, Blackrock Board Member and former Chair and CEO of Verizon, and Lord Browne of Madingley, Founder and Chairman of BeyondNetZero and former CEO of BP. Ambassador Jakob Kiefer, an Origination partner, will serve as the Stockholm Studio’s Director.

Stockholm programme speakers addressed four themes with the aim to secure specific implementable projects out of deliberations:

Origination Finance Studio summit leaders distilled current experiences and prescriptions:

At this critical juncture, green steel pioneer and CEO Henrik Henriksson reported from the frontline on how Stegra has been able to finance one of the largest industrial scale-up projects in the world. He shared both achievements and challenges with funding a multi-billion dollar company from scratch and an update on the progress that has been made to be able to deliver green steel at scale from Boden, Sweden. “Stegra is a purpose-built company which aims to accelerate the decarbonization of hard-to-abate industries. It is also fundamentally an example of how capital can be structured to solve some of mankind’s common challenges,” said Henrik Henriksson, CEO of Stegra. 

“The concept of the NEW Nordics emerged in the process leading up to the Studio. This region combines historic stability with innovation and good growth. Collectively, this 35-million-strong area wields economic influence comparable to a major G20 country, ranking among the top 15 economies globally. In fact, Sweden alone had more stock listings than Germany, France, Spain combined for each year of the last decade. “If the rest of the EU performed like Sweden, we would not be talking about a competitiveness problem,” observed Dr Osvald Bjelland, Origination Founder and Chairman.

“Closing the technology gap is central to Europe’s resilience,” stated Risto Siilasmaa, Founder of F-Secure, former Chair and Interim CEO of Nokia, and Founder and Chair of WithSecure. “We need to map where critical capabilities are missing, quantify the investment required to fill those gaps, and deploy both public and private resources strategically. That is the core of ensuring the New Nordics and Europe can withstand systemic shocks and maintain competitiveness.”

“Energy transition projects must move from prototypes to full-scale deployment. Our job is to identify which technologies are ready, where financing bottlenecks exist, and how to structure investment to de-risk early-stage deployment at scale,” noted Christian Rynning- Tønnesen, Senior Partner and CEO of Aker-ICP Infrastructure and former CEO of Statkraft.

“Europe does not lack innovation; it lacks the capital and risk appetite to invest and scale projects at speed and over time. For long-term investors, the question is not willingness but coordination of capital and creating an EU Inc.,” asserted Sebastian Frisk, Partner and Head of EQT Growth.

“Planet and human-centric capitalism driven by sustainable interaction between nature, society, and the economy is a force for good serving generations to come. It’s a pathway to more and greater profits and returns for all stakeholders – humanity and nature,” prescribed Dr Phoebe Koundouri, Professor at University of Athens and Cambridge University and Member of the Nominating Committee for the Nobel Prize in Economics.

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NEXTBIOMEDICAL Secures Health Canada Approval for Nexsphere-F™ in Musculoskeletal Pain Embolization

SEOUL, South Korea, Jan. 29, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — NEXTBIOMEDICAL CO., LTD. (KOSDAQ: 389650), an innovative medical device company based in South Korea, announced today that Nexsphere-F™, the company’s novel fast resorbable microsphere for musculoskeletal pain embolization has received approval from Health Canada.

Nexsphere-F™ is a fast resorbable microsphere designed for musculoskeletal pain embolization. It temporarily occludes abnormal blood vessels associated with osteoarthritis-related pain using resorbable microspheres, inducing necrosis of pain-generating nerve cells within 2 to 8 hours after the procedure and effectively reducing pain. Unlike permanent microspheres, Nexsphere-F™ is designed to naturally dissolve after embolization, significantly lowering the risk of post-procedural complications and supporting the growing clinical demand for osteoarthritis pain embolization.

In addition to Canadian approval, Nexsphere-F™ is currently the only resorbable embolic microsphere certified under CE-MDD for osteoarthritis pain embolization, and is commercialized in major European countries. At CIRSE 2025, the annual congress of the Cardiovascular and Interventional Radiological Society of Europe, Dr. Florian Nima Fleckenstein (Charité-Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Berlin, Germany) presented, “Using rapidly resorbable, gelatin-based microspheres(Nexsphere-F™) for knee osteoarthritis pain embolization resulted in significant improvements in pain and function, while demonstrating favorable safety compared to permanent microspheres or antibiotic-based compounds.” These findings were recently reported by Interventional News, a leading interventional radiology news.

Furthermore, a study published in Orthopaedic Journal of Sports Medicine (OJSM) highlighted the clinical efficacy and safety of Nexsphere-F™ for patients with patellar tendinopathy, a condition frequently seen in athletes. Additional clinical studies have reported its application in a wide range of musculoskeletal pain, including knee osteoarthritis, medial epicondylitis, plantar fasciitis.

The company is conducting multiple post-market clinical trials across several countries to further evaluate the efficacy and safety of Nexsphere-F™ for various indications, including osteoarthritis, patellar tendinopathy, elbow, wrist, plantar fasciitis, and other musculoskeletal conditions.

Nexsphere-F™ previously received Investigational Device Exemption (IDE) approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and subsequently initiated a pivotal clinical trial for FDA approval, which is moving forward as planned. The study, named RESORB (Randomized Controlled Study Evaluating Genicular Artery Embolization Against Intra-Articular Corticosteroid Knee Injection for Osteoarthritic Knee Pain), is a multicenter, randomized controlled trial involving 126 patients with knee osteoarthritis across more than 10 U.S. clinical sites. The trial aims to evaluate the safety and efficacy of genicular artery embolization (GAE) with Nexsphere-F™ compared to intra-articular corticosteroid injections, with patient enrollment targeted to be completed within the first half of this year.

The company is currently in discussions with leading global partners regarding global distribution rights and is focusing its resources on accelerating the ongoing U.S. regulatory clinical trial to support successful entry into the North American market.