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ICH NEXT partners with Fynd
Mumbai: ICH NEXT, India’s homegrown fashion forecaster, has partnered with Reliance-backed Fynd, a multiplatform tech firm. As part of this collaboration, Fynd gains access to ICH NEXT’s dashboard with trend reports for the next couple of years. All brands and businesses offline/online in fashion and lifestyle working with Fynd including Reliance Trends, Ajio.com, Ancestry, Avantra By Trends, Azorte, Yousta etc will be able to leverage insights from ICH NEXT, which is already revamping the Indian fashion & lifestyle space while empowering manufacturers/brands across the country.
“ICH NEXT via its comprehensive trend reports aims to empower Fynd with indigenous India-centric research, accurate trend acumen and the creative development process across design, buying, planning and marketing. While the present service directly benefits all the Indian wear brands, it can also be of interest to non-Indian wear brands, to gain insight into the country’s present sentiments and broader market trends. You never know what sparks off the next great idea,” said ICH NEXT co-founder and chief creator Anuradha Chandrashekar, on the impact of the multipronged collaboration with the tech giant.
Elaborating further on ICH NEXT vision, the company’s co-founder Kanika Vohra said, “This association is a win-win proposition as the fashion industry ultimately strives towards consumer satisfaction, of which the crux is well-researched, well-made products delivered at the right price and at the right time. While markets expand, businesses need to find a unique voice to break through clutter, stay relevant to consumer aspiration and timely tap on the right trends. This future reality is precisely what ICH NEXT is focused on – to aid and abet brands, manufacturers, retailers, labels, etc. to have access to future consumer-relevant trends.”
Fynd director of business finance Rahul Mandowara added, “Fynd’s unrelenting motto is ‘powering delightful shopping experiences for everyone, everywhere’, which perfectly aligns with ICH’s tryst towards ‘conscious creation of on-trend fashion that delivers to consumer aspiration, and ultimately delight’. Fynd serves varied digital solutions and eventually efficiencies across the entire value chain in fashion & lifestyle. We believe that this partnership is a step towards the future of fashion & lifestyle retail in India.”
Terming the partnership with Reliance-backed Fynd as ‘the beginning’, ICH NEXT has declared that it is in the process of deep investments and expansion in automation to heighten accuracy in trend reads and increase creativity, thereby benefitting users more effectively. The announcement comes close on the heels of ICH NEXT launching a nationwide masterclass for industry stakeholders and manufacturers from diverse geographies. The first leg of it, titled ‘Unlock Business Success through In-Depth research’, was recently held in Jaipur.
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Canva acquires animation and AI startups Cavalry and MangoAI
The deals strengthen Canva’s push into enterprise and AI-led design workflows
AUSTRALIA: Global visual communication platform Canva has stepped up its acquisition drive, buying UK-based 2D animation platform Cavalry and US-based AI startup MangoAI to deepen its AI-powered creative stack.
Cavalry, whose tools are used by brands including Amazon, Meta, Google and Netflix, will strengthen Canva’s motion design capabilities. The deal builds on Canva’s 2024 acquisition of Affinity, which has crossed four million downloads since launch. With Cavalry, Canva now counts seven Europe-based acquisitions, underscoring its global expansion strategy.
MangoAI, an early-stage startup focused on video advertising optimisation, will integrate its reinforcement learning systems into Canva AI. The move aims to enable brands to generate personalised marketing content in real time, cutting production cycles while improving campaign performance. MangoAI co-founder Vinith Misra will join Canva as reinforcement learning lead in its research lab.
Canva co-founder and chief operating officer Cliff Obrecht said the acquisitions reflect the company’s ambition to make professional-grade creative tools more accessible without sidelining human creativity. The goal, he said, is to bring everything from vector to motion design into a single, integrated suite.
The company now reports 265 million active users, including 31 million paid subscribers, and $4 billion in annualised revenue, up 36 per cent year on year. The latest buys further position Canva against rivals such as Adobe and Apple’s Creator Studio as it pushes deeper into enterprise workflows.
Canva head of pro design marketing Liam Fisher, said AI is intended to act as a creative assistant rather than a replacement, reinforcing the primacy of craft and individual design judgement.
