Applications
PUMA cashes in on Cricket fever
MUMBAI: PUMA is all set to take cricket digital with the launch of its Facebook application – PUMA Finger Bash. The innovative and addictive game allows players to virtually compete against Team PUMA in a game of cricket – where the players can bowl, bat & score with their fingers.
PUMA Finger Cricket will give the Indian cricket fans a chance to be involved with cricket in a way convenient to them. Similar to the famous and age-old game played with the hand ‘Rock, Paper, Scissors‘ – PFB is easily played on-ground between friends and makes for a very entertaining past-time.
Users can play PUMA Finger Bash (PFB) against the virtual forms of their favourite T20 cricketers like Andre Russell, Marlon Samuels, Brendon McCullum, Adam Gilchrist, Yuvraj Singh and Luke Wright.
In the last season of IPL, PUMA had created a series of superhero comic strips after each match of the Rajasthan Royals and Deccan Chargers.
Applications
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.
