Post Office Studios partners with NOMINT, a UK-based production company to accelerate growth of the animation industry beyond Indian shores

In a massive leap for India’s animation industry, Mumbai-based Post Office Studios has partnered with NOMINT, a production company based in London. The remarkable collaboration will witness NOMINT represent the Post Office Studios in the UK and the USA markets as well as the expansion of Post Office’s international presence, thus marking a prodigious development in the Indian animation industry. 

The goal of the move is to merge the creative power of both parties and build a smooth mechanism that enables collaborations with some of the largest brands in the world, propelled by novel narratives and experienced storytelling. 

With the overall development of the M&E sector, the Indian animation industry has evolved sufficiently, although still deemed relatively younger than its American or European counterparts. However, the partnership opens up new avenues overseas as Post Office will be represented in the European and American markets, thus strengthening the foothold of the country’s animation industry at an international level. 

The advantage of animation lies in thoroughly incorporating cultural relevance while catering to local tastes; yet remaining culturally multivocal when dubbed in regional languages of the world. Due to this and the rise of digital media, not only has animation reached the Indian diaspora but also the mainstream global market.  

Aditya Tawde, CCO and Co-Founder of Post Office Studios, says,

“We are delighted to partner with NOMINT and help expand India’s global footprint in the animation industry. The partnership will bring with it innovation and diversity that will facilitate a successful cross-cultural collaboration and usher creators into new markets previously unavailable to them. With our combined expertise and talent, we aim to break creative boundaries and deliver new projects together.”

Marilena Vatseri - Managing Director of NOMINT said,

“I am really excited to announce that the prominent animation studio, Post Office, has signed with NOMINT for representation in the USA and Europe. Post Office is one of the leading animation studios in the super exciting, bustling Mumbai animation scene. With a focus on high-end 2D and 3D, the animation studio is also celebrated for mixing styles and creating beautiful mixed media films. We have already been working with the team for the past year, and I am thrilled to show you the wonderful projects we have been collaborating on very soon!”

With the peak of OTT and content creation, studios have begun experimenting with a spectrum of ideas and thrive internationally. As the shrinking world gives a vast opportunity for animation companies to marry creative minds to work across multiple platforms, the association between Post Office Studios and NOMINT essentially seeks to accomplish that and flourish around the world. 

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Partners Group to acquire leading Indian wired broadband service provider, Atria Convergence Technologies (ACT)

 Partners Group, a leading global private markets firm, has agreed, on behalf of its clients, to acquire Atria Convergence Technologies ("ACT" or "the Company"), one of India's largest providers of high-speed fiber-optic broadband, from Argan (Mauritius) Limited and TA Associates. Partners Group, which has been a joint investor in ACT since 2016, will acquire a controlling stake in a transaction that values the Company at an enterprise value of nearly USD 1.2 billion.

Headquartered in Bangalore with over 7,000 employees, ACT is a leading multi-service operator offering a package of internet, TV, data, and other broadband services. The Company serves around 2 million wired broadband subscribers across 19 cities in India and has one of the largest fiber networks in the country, capable of delivering connection speed of up to 1 Gbps. ACT has high customer retention rates and delivers reliable broadband, strong uptime, and quality customer service. The Company is well-positioned to benefit from rapidly rising data consumption in India, which has been accelerated by new working and learning from home trends since COVID-19. Partners Group will work closely with ACT management and TA Associates, which will continue to hold a minority stake, on a value creation plan to support the Company's ongoing growth and contribution to the Digital India mission.

Manas Tandon, Managing Director, Private Equity, Partners Group, says: "ACT is on the frontline of digitization in India, providing fast, reliable broadband to millions of homes in the country. The Company is an excellent opportunity for us to support the transformation of a growing business through expansion into new markets and development of new product offerings. As existing investors, we have followed ACT's journey for several years and have been impressed with Bala and his team's strategic vision, and their commitment to customer satisfaction, which converges with our focus on operational excellence."

Bala Malladi, Chief Executive Officer, Atria Convergence Technologies, comments: "ACT has been a pioneer in the fixed broadband industry with its relentless focus on creating a culture of technological excellence, as well as employee and customer centricity. The Company has been at the forefront of facilitating working from home and learning from home during the pandemic and believes in supporting the Digital India mission significantly. Partners Group has been an integral part of the Company’s growth journey for several years and is a great believer and supporter of our core values. The firm's experience working with global technology companies and its expertise in supporting multi-dimensional growth will be very valuable."

Vageesh Gupta, Member of Management, Partners Group, adds: "Data consumption in India is booming yet our thematic research shows the wired broadband market is supply constrained with the country continuing to have amongst the lowest fiber-to-the-home penetration in the world. We are delighted that Bala and his team have chosen to partner with us as we work together to implement a value creation plan that will focus on expanding ACT's share in new geographies and customer segments."

Partners Group's other investments in India include Vishal Mega Mart, franchisor of the Vishal Mega Mart brand and wholesale supplier to Vishal-branded hypermarket stores; Aavas Financiers, provider of housing loans to low and middle income customers; and Ecom Express, a leading provider of logistics solutions to the Indian e-commerce industry. ACT is Partners Group’s third investment in the telecom space this year after Unity Digital, a telecom tower platform in the Philippines, and Eolo, Italy's leading fixed wireless access broadband provider.

The transaction is subject to customary closing conditions, including clearance by the relevant merger control authorities.

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Picsart celebrates India's 75th Independence day adding regional elements for its diverse audience in the country

 Picsart, the leading creative platform celebrates Indian Independence and language diversity by adding two more regional languages to the earlier existing two, Hindi and Bengali. With this, the app covers the major languages of the regions in India. 

Independence Day celebrates the sacrifices of the freedom fighters who fought the colonial occupation to give India Independence. Since independence, India has been a democratic and diverse nation striving towards further greatness and prosperity. Picsart with its India-centric features aims to give the country’s millennial population an opportunity to express this diversity in the most creative way possible.

To make Independence Day extra special, Picsart has also further introduced four new Indian text fonts, Indian music, and exciting stickers and replays that will allow users to create special content to portray their love for India. Picsart seeks to empower Indians to express themselves to create content using the special range of filters, replays, stickers and fonts available in the app.

“75th Independence Day is both special and emotional for all Indians. It reminds us of the sacrifices many made to get us here. Picsart is proud to be a part of the celebration and celebrates it by introducing two new languages Marathi and Tamil in the app alongside the existing languages of Hindi and Bengali. In doing so, Picsart aims to reach the local communities to help encourage them to create content in major Indian languages and share with the world”, said Ravish Jain, Country head at Picsart, India.

Picsart is free to download for Apple, Android, and Windows and can also be accessed on the web. Picsart Gold is available on a monthly or annual subscription basis for those wishing to enjoy premium editing. With Picsart Gold, subscribers have access to millions of stickers, hundreds of fonts, frames, and backgrounds, and an entire library of free-to-edit content and stock photography.

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Picsart Launches Brand Refresh, Empowers Visual Culture as it Surpasses 1 Billion Edits Per Month

 Picsart, the  creative platform, unveiled a brand refresh, including a new logo, visual elements, and streamlined user interface. The refresh comes as the company surges past 1 billion edits each month and ranks among the top-grossing photography and video apps worldwide.

“Picsart is inspiring visual culture on a massive scale -- from social media posts to album covers to digital advertising -- and the new brand is a reflection of this evolution,” said Hovhannes Avoyan, founder and CEO of Picsart.

“We’re much more than the individual elements of Pictures and Art,” said Avoyan of the small but symbolic change of removing the capital “A” in Picsart. “We’re removing boundaries between imagination and creativity for hundreds of millions of people in nearly every country of the world.”

Led by Picsart’s internal brand team, the company partnered with San Francisco-based branding firm New Company to develop the vision and creative direction for the refresh. Users will begin seeing the new visual elements on the platform starting this week. To read more about the rebranding process and what you can expect to see in the coming weeks, visit the Picsart blog.

Picsart creators design and remix a range of visual assets, including marketing materials, posters, digital stickers, videos, and more. The company recently announced the additions of Craig Foster as CFO, and Magdalena Yesil as a new board member.

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Huawei’s newly launched, generations ahead health and fitness band, HUAWEI Band 6 became a bestseller on Amazon India

 Huawei Consumer Business Group India announced that its latest entrant in the wearables category, HUAWEI Band 6 sold out on Amazon India. The product became a bestseller on Amazon India within hours subsequent to it launch on the platform and sold out soon after. The stylish and feature loaded HUAWEI Band 6 will soon be available for customers again on Amazon India starting July 15, 2021 at an attractive price of INR 4490/-. The product will be available in four stylish colours: Graphite Black, Sakura Pink, Amber Sunrise and Forest Green, which broadens the options to satisfy more tastes.

 

An innovative top-grade smart fitness band, HUAWEI Band 6 comes with features like all day blood oxygen saturation monitoring (SpO2), heart-rate monitoring, sleep quality monitoring, 96 sports modes among many others for our health conscious customers. The product is equipped with a BIG Amoled full-view display allowing customers to consume more content and enjoy a smartwatch-like interactive experience. The HUAWEI Band 6 comes with 14 days battery life on a single charge, offering an uninterrupted user experience for up to two weeks

 

The key features that help HUAWEI Band 6 stand out on its own are the main reasons behind its immense sale success.

 

All-day SpO2 Monitoring

Health monitoring features are one of the most popular features for smart band users. Thanks to the hardware modules optimised, based on the Huawei TruSeen^TM 4.0 and new smart power-saving algorithm, the HUAWEI Band 6 now supports All Day SpO2 monitoring. It monitors users’ health and generates an alarm when the blood oxygen level is low, helping them take swift action and manage their health more proactively. HUAWEI Band 6 also provides continuous, real-time, and accurate heart rate, sleep and stress monitoring. It will also alerts the user if the resting heart rate is too high or too low.

 

1.47-inch FullView AMOLED Display

HUAWEI Band 6 is Huawei’s first smart band to include a 1.47-inch AMOLED FullView Display with a 64 percent screen-to-body ratio, meaning it can display more information while remaining stylish.

HUAWEI Band 6 comes with a 1.47-inch AMOLED FullView Display with a resolution of 194*368 and 282PPI for vivid content. The colourful screen display provides users with greater clarity of information and gives workout and health data in a more user-friendly display ratio. Users can easily swipe up and down, left and right, just like using a smartphone touchscreen.

 

Two-week battery life

Supported by a high-efficiency chipset and smart power-saving algorithms, the HUAWEI Band 6 enables continuous heart rate and sleep monitoring with a 14-day battery life for uninterrupted use. On top of this, the HUAWEI Band 6 supports fast charging via a magnetic charger. One five-minute charge can sustain the smart band for two days of typical use. Weighing only 18g, the HUAWEI Band 6 is a remarkable piece of kit.

 

A new lifestyle featuring proactive fitness management

The fitness features of HUAWEI Band 6 also bring a whole new experience to users. The 96 workout modes include 11 professional workout modes such as indoor and outdoor running, cycling, and rope skipping, and 85 more customized modes, including fitness, ball games, and dancing types, offering wide coverage of workout tracking. The HUAWEI Band 6 adopts Huawei-developed HUAWEI TruSport^TM professional exercise algorithm to deeply analyse users' exercise capabilities based on multi-dimensional parameters such as heart rate variability data and exercise data, providing them with scientific assessment and suggestions on their exercise capabilities.

 

A smart companion on the wrist

With its incredible battery life and lightweight design, the HUAWEI Band 6 is designed to provide its users with essential and smart features for extended periods of time in various scenarios. The HUAWEI Band 6 can intelligently identify unfamiliar numbers, control music playback and remote camera shutter.

 

HUAWEI Band 6 is not only leading the way in reshaping the conventional form of a smart band, but also the most versatile entry-level wearable product on the market. . With the HUAWEI Band 6, users can easily establish new ways to live a healthy and active lifestyle

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