YouTube is adding new tools for creators to create short-form videos, or as the platform calls it, Shorts. Now, users will have the remix videos, add voiceovers, and a new recomposition tool that can turn horizontal videos into Shorts, among others. Here are six new creator features coming to YouTube Shorts. One of the latest additions to Shorts is Collab, a feature that enables users to record Shorts in a split-screen format with other Shorts or regular clips. To create a Collab video, users simply need to select Remix and choose the new format from an eligible Short or YouTube content.YouTube’s Collab is now available and will be released to users gradually. The format will be initially available to iOS users, followed by Android users. TikTok and Instagram‘s Reels both offer a similar split-screen collab feature.Creators can now use a Q&A sticker on Shorts to engage with their audience and receive responses in the comments section. Additionally, they have the ability to reply to comments with a brief video, similar to how it is on Reels and TikTok.YouTube will soon be testing a recomposition tool that will make it easier for creators to transform horizontal videos into vertical Shorts. This new tool will allow creators to adjust the layout, zoom, and crop of the segment they wish to use.Additionally, YouTube is testing a new feature for live creators. In this feature, live videos will be inserted into the Shorts feed. Viewers will see previews of live videos mixed in with other Shorts as they scroll through. If they choose to watch a live video, they will be taken to a feed of only live videos.YouTube believes that this new feature, combined with the lower eligibility requirements for the YouTube Partner Program, could allow live video creators to explore more monetization options.There are also some new tools to help creators with inspiration for their videos. Now YouTube automatically bundles audio and effects. Additionally, you can save Shorts to playlists for future use.YouTube says that Shorts is now being watched by over 2 billion users a month. So, these new tools should help creators with their imagination and creativity, allowing them to cash in on the viewership.

Freshworks reported a net loss of $35.66 Mn Q2 2023, down 48.9% YoY compared to $69.75 Mn in the corresponding quarter in 2022 The SaaS unicorn reported a revenue of $145.08 Mn during Q2 2023, growing 19% YoY from $121.43 Mn reported in Q2 2022 Freshworks managed to shave off its operating expenses by about $1.21 Mn, coming down from $164.72 Mn in Q2 2022 to $163.51 Mn in Q2 2023 NASDAQ-listed Indian SaaS unicorn Freshworks has reported a net loss of $35.66 Mn in the quarter ended June 30, 2023 (Q2 2023), down 48.9% year-on-year (YoY) compared to $69.75 Mn in the corresponding quarter in 2022, off the back of improving revenue and falling costs. Incidentally, Freshworks had reported an adjusted operating profit for the first time in the January-March quarter of 2023, posting a non-GAAP (Generally Acceptable Accounting Practices) profit of $3.88 Mn during the quarter. The SaaS unicorn reported revenue of $145.08 Mn during Q2 2023 (April to June), growing 19% YoY from $121.43 Mn reported in Q2 2022. Freshworks said that adjusting for constant currency, the revenue was up 20% YoY.  The revenue growth can be mostly attributed to the number of customers contributing more than $5,000 in annual recurring revenue (ARR), hitting 19,105, a jump of 18% YoY. At the same time, Freshworks managed to shave off its operating expenses by about $1.21 Mn, coming down from $164.72 Mn in Q2 2022 to $163.51 Mn in Q2 2023. Quarterly, the operating expenses rose 2%, compared to $160.56 Mn in Q1 2023. The SaaS unicorn also saw minor improvement in sales and marketing expenses and research and development. Freshworks reported a free cash flow of $18.1 Mn, compared to -$10.2 Mn in the second quarter of 2022. “Freshworks is building on the foundations we set at the start of the year to deliver faster product innovation and improve our efficiency,” said Girish Mathrubootham, CEO and founder of Freshworks on the results. The SaaS giant also launched three new generative AI products – Freddy Self Service, Freddy Copilot and Freddy Insights – during the quarter. Speaking on the same, Mathrubootham added, “In Q2, we launched new generative AI enhancements across our product lines and outperformed our estimates across all our key financial metrics.” Freshworks also saw layoffs towards the end of the quarter ended June 30, 2023, though the company had denied any company-wide layoffs during the time. The retrenchments reportedly happened within senior positions in the SaaS unicorn’s product, engineering and go-to-market (GTM) teams. Founded in 2010 by Girish Mathrubootham and Shanmugam Krishnasamy, Freshworks offers a suite of software for customer service and support, customer engagement and IT service management. The company went public in 2021, though its share price has been in freefall since hitting a peak of $50.25 in October 2021. The SaaS unicorn’s share price stood at $18.24 during Tuesday’s close, giving it a market cap of $5.31 Bn.

What Is A Private Equity Fund? A private equity (PE) fund is an investment vehicle that pools funds and invests in privately held companies in exchange for an equity share. It falls under Category II alternative investment fund (AIF) category, as per the regulations of the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI).  A PE fund is run by general partners and a management company (PE firm). The management company is the operating entity of the fund and employs general partners who bring in investors, also called limited partners, to invest money in the fund.  Typically, a PE firm invests for a decade and the minimum investment amount is bigger than other types of investments. This means that most of the investors in a PE fund are generally high-net-worth individuals (HNIs), ultra-high-net-worth individuals (UHNIs) and institutional investors. What Are The Benefits Of A Private Equity Fund? Private companies can raise a large amount of funding from PE funds. Such companies don’t just receive financial benefits but also mentorship, networking, expertise and operational support. A private equity investment helps companies during uncertainty and also for scaling and expansion plans.  For investors, private equity funds provide an opportunity to tap into the potential of unlisted companies. Investors’ interest is safely guarded by the PE firm as they hold the companies accountable for their actions and transactions. What Are The Risks Associated With Private Equity Funds? For investors, one of the biggest challenges with investments in PE funds is that they won’t be able to dilute their shares easily and exit their positions as opposed to funding in listed companies. PE firms also charge high fees, which might affect the ROI. Additionally, the minimum investment required for a private equity fund is way higher than the traditional investment. For companies, their interest might conflict with that of the PE firm’s. Besides, companies give up a sizable portion of ownership to these firms in exchange for capital. However, this may come with inflexible terms that may not be favourable for the company.   In a private equity firm, general partners are the fund managers who decide the fund size and bring investors on board. They also decide which portfolio companies to invest in and make investment decisions on behalf of the investors. They are responsible for the performance of the fund and earn lucrative performance fees. Limited partners bring in the capital to the fund with an intent to make lucrative gains. General partners reach out to limited partners for investment in portfolio companies. When both parties come to an agreement, it is called a limited partnership agreement (LPA). How Do Private Equity Firms Make Money? Private equity firms majorly make money through management fees and carried interest. In management fees, the limited partners pay the management of the firm a fee, generally about 2% of the fund size. Meanwhile, carried interest is the certain amount of profit general partners share with limited partners when limited partners make profit from their investment.  What Is The Role Of A Private Equity Fund Manager? A private equity fund manager implements the fund’s investment strategy and is responsible for generating returns for the investors. The manager researches and oversees analysts and makes important investment decisions. The PE fund manager is responsible for researching potential investments, negotiating deals and overseeing the performance of the portfolio companies. The manager also oversees the performance of the portfolio companies and works to improve their operations.  The manager pitches the private equity firm to potential investors for investment opportunities. How Can Investors Access Private Equity Funds? Direct Investments: Investors can directly invest in private equity funds. However, the minimum investment amount threshold is very high, often starting at millions of dollars. Fund of Funds: A fund of funds is a pool of capital from multiple investors to invest in a diverse portfolio of private equity funds. This provides exposure to a range of private equity investments and minimises risk. Private Equity ETFs: Private equity extra-traded funds (ETFs) enable regular investors to participate in private equity investments by buying shares of ETFs that track the performance of publicly traded companies involved in private equities, providing potential returns and diversification opportunities to these companies. Special Purpose Acquisition Companies (SPACs): Investors can invest in SPACs, which are publicly traded shell companies that make private equity investments in undervalued private companies. However, investing in SPACs can be risky and may lack diversification. How Can An Investor Evaluate A Private Equity Fund? Begin with assessing the fund’s investment strategy — types of investments it focuses on, target return and plans to achieve its goals. Investors should also check the past performance and rate of return and then compare them to other private equity funds. They must also consider the management fees and carried interest, and understand its impact on the return.  Investors should check the performance of the fund’s portfolio companies, as their success can translate into potential returns. Lastly, analyse the fund’s investment process, including how investments are selected, due diligence procedure, and the fund’s exit strategy. What Are The Types Of Private Equity Strategies? The prominent strategies of PE funds in India are growth capital, buyouts and mezzanine finance. Growth Capital: Growth capital is the investment in early or growth stage companies to support their expansion plans, research and development, or working capital needs. Buyout: In this, investors acquire a controlling stake in an established company to restructure and improve its operations to increase profits and ROI. Mezzanine Finance: This is a combination of debt and equity to provide capital to companies for growth initiatives or acquisitions. The debt becomes equity in case of a default in payment. It offers flexibility and an upside for investors in the form of regular interest payments and potential ownership rights in the company. For the company, the interest rate is generally high but it will not have to dilute equity stake.  What Is The Process For Raising Funds From Private Equity Funds? A company can start by

As part of the strategic partnership, Rahane has also been roped in as the brand ambassador of the startup OATEY will use the funding to raise awareness, for brand building efforts, and to make key hires Founded in 2021 by Jamadagni and Prashant Chauhan, OATEY sells plant-based dairy alternatives such as oat milk, millet milk and chocolate oat milk through online channels Dairy alternatives startup OATEY on Tuesday (August 1) said it has raised an undisclosed amount of funding from Indian cricketer Ajinkya Rahane. As part of the strategic partnership, Rahane has also been roped in as the brand ambassador of the startup.  Speaking to Inc42, OATEY cofounder Ankush Jamadagni said that the funding will go towards raising awareness about the plant-based dairy alternatives brand and for brand building efforts. The capital will also be deployed to make key hires, expand into the offline channel and launch new products.  The startup is also looking to raise fresh capital as it eyes further growth, said Jamadagni. The D2C brand is also looking to scale growth by partnering with growth accelerators and institutional accelerators in the plant-based space. “The collaboration between OATEY and Ajinkya Rahane symbolises the perfect match of shared values and a common vision. Together, we aim to create widespread awareness about healthier living, advocate for the adoption of plant-based food options, and inspire individuals to lead sustainable lives,” added Jamadagni. Chiming in, Rahane, in a statement, said, “I am excited to collaborate with a health-conscious brand like OATEY. Their commitment to quality products and inspiring brand values align perfectly with my own principles, and I am confident that our partnership will motivate individuals seeking a healthy lifestyle…” Founded in 2021 by Jamadagni and Prashant Chauhan, OATEY sells plant-based dairy alternatives globally through its website and ecommerce marketplaces. Its offerings include oat milk, millet milk and chocolate oat milk. The D2C brand has grown steadily over the past two quarters, and claims to have logged an average growth rate of 57% month-on-month (MoM) and 30% quarter-on-quarter (QoQ). The startup attributes its growth to changing dietary preferences and growing awareness among masses for sustainable, plant-based milk products.  Overall, the Indian dairy products space has seen the rise of many big names in the past few years as users look for organic and sustainable options. This has led to the emergence of D2C brands such as Country Delight, MoooFarm, Stellaps, among others.  The backing from Rahane comes at a time when the dairy alternatives space is witnessing the growth of new startups and brands. In April this year, a similar startup, Zero Cow Factory, bagged $4 Mn in a seed funding round led by Green Frontier Capital, GVFL and Pi Ventures.

Apple has teamed up with Pixar, Adobe, Autodesk, NVIDIA, and Linux to support and advance Pixar’s 3D Universal Scene Description technology. Pixar Animation Studios developed the Open Universal Scene Description (USD). According to Apple, USD enables easier creation of 3D content using diverse tools. The alliance is aiming to make the 3D ecosystem more standardised by enhancing the capabilities of Open Universal Scene Description (OpenUSD). This will lead to better interoperability among 3D tools and data, which will allow developers and content creators to describe, compose, and simulate large-scale 3D projects easily. As a result, the alliance hopes to expand the range of 3D-enabled products and services available.OpenUSD is a 3D scene description technology developed by Pixar Animation Studios. It offers high-performance, robust interoperability across various tools, data, and workflows and is already known for its ability to streamline cinematic content production and capture artistic expression. OpenUSD’s power and flexibility make it an ideal platform for new industries and applications. “Universal Scene Description was invented at Pixar and is the technological foundation of our state-of-the-art animation pipeline,” said Steve May, Chief Technology Officer at Pixar and Chairperson of AOUSD. “OpenUSD is based on years of research and application in Pixar filmmaking. We open-sourced the project in 2016, and the influence of OpenUSD now expands beyond film, visual effects, and animation and into other industries that increasingly rely on 3D data for media interchange. With the announcement of AOUSD, we signal the exciting next step: the continued evolution of OpenUSD as a technology and its position as an international standard.”To enable greater compatibility and broader adoption, an alliance will develop written specifications outlining the features of OpenUSD. These specifications will be included by other standards bodies, allowing for integration and implementation. The project will be hosted by the Linux Foundation’s JDF, enabling open, efficient, and effective development of OpenUSD specifications, leading to recognition through the International Organization for Standardization (ISO).The alliance also invites a broad range of companies and organisations to join and participate in shaping the future of OpenUSD. AOUSD will provide the primary forum for the collaborative definition of enhancements to the technology by the more significant industry.“OpenUSD will help accelerate the next generation of AR experiences, from artistic creation to content delivery, and produce an ever-widening array of spatial computing applications,” said Mike Rockwell, Apple’s vice president of the Vision Products Group. “Apple has been an active contributor to the development of USD, and it is an essential technology for the groundbreaking visionOS platform, as well as the new Reality Composer Pro developer tool. We look forward to fostering its growth into a broadly adopted standard.”Apple has recently introduced its foray into virtual reality with Vision Pro, along with the launch of a new initiative aimed at producing cinematic 3D content for this realm. Through this initiative, Apple seeks to simplify the process of creating 3D content by providing a range of diverse tools.

HP has announced its Back to College initiative. This campaign will feature exclusive discounts and offers on the company’s latest lineup of laptops and printers. Students will be able to avail of discounts on lineups, including HP Omen, Victus, Pavilion and Envy laptops which come equipped with Intel 13th Gen processors. Additionally, students will also be able to purchase subscriptions for the Adobe Creative Cloud platform at a special price. This campaign, which will run through August 20, will also offer discounts on HP Smart Tank printers. These offers will be available at all HP World Stores, HP authorised offline sellers and HP Online Store. HP “Back to College” campaign: Offers and discountsHP Omen Series (Omen 16, Omen Transcend 16 and Omen 17) 10% cashback up to Rs 10,000 and 15% cashback up to Rs 15,000with leading banks on the purchase of HP’s new Omen laptops Avail HyperX Solocast USB Microphone worth Rs 7,527 at Rs 999 when purchasing an Omen device Warranty extension starts at Rs 499 and no-cost EMI options on any Omen laptop for 3/6/9/12 months Upgrade to the latest Omen laptop and receive benefits up to Rs 10,000 by exchanging any older HP laptop through HP Switch HP Victus 16 5% cashback up to Rs 4,000 with leading banks on the purchase of new Victus laptops Buy a HyperX Solocast USB Microphone worth Rs 7,527 at Rs 2,999 when purchasing Victus laptops HP Switch offers benefits up to Rs 3,000 on exchanging an older HP laptop while purchasing a Victus Warranty extension starts at Rs 499 and no-cost EMI options for 3/6 months on Victus laptops HP Envy x360 15 The newly launched Envy laptops come with multiple cashback offers – 10% cashback up to Rs 10,000 and 15% cashback up to Rs 15,0000 with leading banks HyperX Solocast USB Microphone worth Rs 7,527 will be available for Rs 1,999 when purchasing an Envy laptop Benefits up to Rs 6,000 through HP Switch HP Pavilion 5% cashback up to Rs 4,000 with leading banks on the purchase of new Pavilion laptops Flat Rs 2,500 cashback with select NBFC partners Warranty and HP 500 Bluetooth available at Rs 1,499 HP Switch offers benefits up to Rs 3,000 on exchanging an older HP laptop while purchasing a Pavilion HP 14/15 Upto 5% cashback (maximum cashback of Rs 4,000) with leading banks Flat Rs 1,500 cashback with select NBFC partners Warranty and HP Wireless mouse at Rs 299 Adobe Creative CloudCustomers can avail of the Adobe Creative Cloud subscription worth Rs 20,000 at Rs 2,999 when purchasing Omen, Envy, Spectre, Pavilion Aero, or Pavilion Plus laptops.HP Smart Tank printers Free Fire-Boltt Rocket Smart Watch worth Rs 9,999 through redemption Finance options such as no-cost EMI and low-cost EMI with leading banks are available, with monthly EMI starting at Rs 899 10% cashback; up to Rs 1000 with leading banks on the purchase on select Smart Tank printers 1+1-year warranty offer on select Smart Tank printers Free 1-year Print Learn Center (PLC) subscription worth Rs 899

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Online gamers’ association ‘Indian Gamers United’ have sent an open letter to the finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman. The letter bats for a reduction of 28 per cent Goods and Services Tax (GST) on online gaming. The ‘Indian Gamers United’ is said to represent gamers from Tier II and Tier III cities. It claims that the majority of gamers are actually in smaller towns across the country. The letter said that high taxation will push the gamers towards illegal and offshore platforms where no tax is payable, putting them into high risk. It further requested for distinction between games of chance like gambling and games of skill like gaming. The GST Council will meet on August 2 where it is expected to decide on modalities for implementing the 28 per cent GST on online gaming, casino and horse racing.Here’s the letter sent: Government of IndiaRespected Ma’am,We represent online gamers from thousands of small towns across the country. Our voice is not heard as people and governments believe that online gaming is an activity of metro cities and big towns. If there are 400 million gamers in the country, the majority of us are actually from smaller towns across the country.Tirth Mehta, who won India’s first ever medal in esports at the Asian Games in Jakarta, 2018 was not from a metro, but from a town called Bhuj in the Kutch region of Gujarat.Many of us not only play games on mobile as a passion, but also use it to earn money and maybe even livelihood.It was only a few years back, gamers realised that they could convert their hobbies into something that could earn money for us.We play all kinds of games on mobile from casual games like ludo to card games like poker and sports based games like chess. We learnt that recently the government has decided to impose a 28% GST on the total face value.Earlier, 18% GST was cut just on the platform fee. We read from media reports that this could Increase the GST anywhere from 1110% to 1300%. At this rate, it will not be viable for most of us to play at all.Companies have said that they will be forced to shut down. Players would then go to try out illegal foreign platforms that offer betting and gambling. We know that our beloved Pradhan Mantri Modiji believes in the potential of the youth especially in the digital sector. Gaming is an important part of the digital sector and we believe that we gamers can contribute to the country.We earnestly request the government to support the gamers. We fear that we will be unable to afford gaming on legitimate platforms because of high tax. We appeal to the government not to push genuine gamers towards illegal betting platforms.To make our voice heard, some of us in Madhya Pradesh, Chattisgarh, Rajasthan, Gujarat and Maharashtra, have gathered in our respective towns to make our voice heard. The group ‘Indian Gamers United’ are the silent and unheard majority of Indian gamers.

Any organization working in the cloud has to manage multiple, complex challenges to security and reliability, while keeping a tight rein on costs. Your brand’s reputation depends on managing these challenges with aplomb, ensuring that you handle threats and failures quickly, transparently, and efficiently. Increasingly, organizations are choosing an open-source service mesh to help avoid downtime—while driving potentially game-changing business benefits, including drastic reductions in cloud spend. Eliminate Downtime The shift to cloud-native technologies has fundamentally changed application development from a world where applications run on hardware and networks completely controlled by the developing organization to a world where that control is traded for lower costs and speed in the development cycle. In turn, this tradeoff requires the organization to embrace new cloud-native patterns, like microservices, Kubernetes, and the use of a service mesh, so that the application still has needed security and resilience. These new patterns allow shifting the security boundary entirely from physical data-center security to application security, including ensuring that all data is encrypted both at rest and in transit. The service mesh plays a critical role in this shift, by adding security, reliability, and observability to the application in a way that minimizes developer involvement. For example, Linkerd, the first open source service mesh to achieve the “graduated” status in the Cloud Native Computing Foundation, uses sophisticated techniques such as mutual TLS to safeguard both confidentiality (encryption) and authenticity (identity validation) of both sides of the connection for all traffic within an application. Linkerd does this completely transparently, without the application needing to change. Additionally, the mesh’s observability features can allow the operations staff to see problems on a Friday night before they become an emergency. And its reliability features can prevent needing to call in a developer team to work the weekend—instead, the operations staff can simply configure the mesh for automatic retries, preserving the user experience and leaving the more intense problem hunting for Monday. Realize Cost Savings Service meshes offer direct and secondary cost savings. The mesh can reduce direct cloud costs by allowing organizations to get rid of load balancers in the cloud and reduce some network traffic. In some cases, organizations have been able to eliminate hundreds of paid IP addresses for microservices. In cases where the organization is running clusters spanning multiple availability zones, some service meshes like Linkerd can even further reduce costs by carefully routing traffic (or handling outages) so that traffic stays within a zone, which costs less than traffic between zones. This can bring dramatic reductions in cloud network spend (millions of dollars a year) while still retaining the failure-resistant properties of multi-zone deployments, as in the case of Entain Australia, which 10x’d throughput and saved thousands of dollars a day by deploying Linkerd. Service meshes also offer secondary cost savings resulting from the increased efficiency of developers. By delivering critical platform features like mutual TLS, latency-aware load balancing, retries, success rate instrumentation, transparent traffic shifting, and more, service mesh frees developers of these tasks, allowing them to focus on the business logic that drives the organization. These savings are significant. Critical platform maintenance can be incredibly difficult to get right in a large distributed system, placing undue pressure on application developers. Protect your Reputation Operational continuity—and the availability of online services—leaves organizations with no slack. Users have come to expect instant access at any time of the day. In a distributed system, IT outages that start as partial failures in one area can quickly escalate into major operational disruptions that impact the customer experience. Issues, errors, or delays reflect on the organization or the brand. A service mesh delivers a sophisticated set of distributed system reliability features that can help prevent escalation in the first place, including request-level load balancing, timeouts, retries, rate limiting, circuit breaking, and traffic shifting. Some service meshes even provide powerful features like latency-based load balancing and retry budgets to tamp down on partial failures before they escalate. image credit: Buoyant.io blog Service Mesh for All? What kind of organizations can benefit from service mesh? Use cases suggest that nearly every organization creating cloud apps in Kubernetes could benefit—including small start-ups. Not only does the service mesh provide operational simplicity, but it can also enhance progress for application developers at every stage of an organization’s growth. Some open-source service meshes have a reputation for complexity. Others were designed to be operationally simple yet powerful, allowing organizations to see immediate benefits. Choosing the right mesh, one that provides critical features “out of the box,” frees the engineering team to focus on fundamental applications that power the business, providing a competitive advantage. Compare Notes Uses cases for service mesh come from industry leaders that include Microsoft, Plaid, and Adidas. These companies, all with global users, have realized the business benefits of creating scalable systems with resilient infrastructure that includes automatic retries, circuit breakers to isolate faults, and seamless restore functionality. Service mesh helps them detect where failures are happening with advanced observability and provides Zero Trust security system-wide. Microsoft’s Xbox, a gaming system, uses service mesh to enhance consistency across the platform, allowing multiplayer games in the Xbox Network. Plaid, a global financial services provider, uses service mesh to accelerate their production and implement changes in as little as 30 minutes, an unheard-of speed in the financial world. Adidas, a global athletic brand, uses service mesh for system redundancy, security, and automated prioritization of network traffic. Measure The Impact The business impacts of using service mesh can be seen in an organization’s overall uptime (increased), overall spending in networking and engineering (decreased), and developer/engineer productivity (increased). Other changes are more subtle but still measurable, including employee satisfaction for those in networking or development and positive shifts in the organization’s development philosophy. And, of course, there’s one other important metric: how many problems your customers notice. When customers and users are unaware of issues because service mesh has things covered, your organization is meeting expectations, building trust, and enhancing your reputation.