Applications
Sun Direct expects to end FY’10 with 6 mn subscribers
NEW DELHI: Kalanithi Maran-promoted Sun Direct expects to grow its subscriber base from 4.3 million to six million by the end of this fiscal. “A major part of our subscriber additions would come during the festive season. We will be having six million subscribers by the end of this fiscal,” Sun Direct COO Tony D’Silva said here today on the sidelines of India Digital Networks Summit 2009. |
Indiantelevision.com had reported earlier that Sun Direct is targeting a revenue of Rs 10 billion and six million subscriber base for FY‘10. The southern DTH major, which launched a high-definition (HD) service in April this year, is still to increase the ARPU (average revenue per user) levels from the lowest in the industry. “In the southern region, Sun Direct has an Arpu between Rs 75-100, while in the northern belt it falls in the region of Rs 125-140,” said D’Silva. D’Silva also said that the HD service is getting good response from consumers and he is expecting it to grow in the festival season. “We have got 3000 subscribers for Sun Direct HD. These are early days but we expect to get a boost from the Commonwealth Games,” he added. |
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.
