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Elon Musk is bringing the ‘X’ factor to Twitter. 

After his acquisition of the social media giant was confirmed, Musk took to Twitter to announce that this deal “is an accelerant to creating X, the everything app”. The Tesla CEO had first teased the idea of making Twitter a super app—similar to WeChat in China—in May.

Meanwhile, there’s a new Pixel in town. After teasing the Pixel 7 and Pixel 7 Pro at its developer event in May, Google has unveiled its latest smartphones, as well as its first smartwatch—Pixel Watch. Both smartphones come with Google’s newest Tensor G2 chip.

Last but not least, people are taking vacations…to improve their sleep.

And of course, the pandemic is to blame.

In today’s newsletter, we will talk about 

• No funding winter for Mumbai Angels
• Clicking polaroids with a smartphone
• Inside Nykaa’s expansion plans

Here’s your trivia for today: Which was the last letter added to the English alphabet?

Investor

No funding winter for Mumbai Angels

While the entire Indian startup ecosystem is gripped by funding winter, Mumbai Angels has managed to buck the trend, investing in more early-stage startups in the first six months of 2022 than in the same period last year.

“The interesting piece of this asset class at the early or angel stage is actually downturn agnostic. It is completely insulated and we never see a slowdown,” says Co-founder and CEO Nandini Mansinghka.

Investment thesis:

• Mumbai Angels has around 700 investors on its platform, and is asking them to allocate a certain percentage of their corpus towards investing in startups.
• It has so far invested in 211 startups, and about 100 of them have either seen an exit or received the next round of funding.
• The platform provides startups with services such as finance, marketing, branding, and legal, among others, free of charge.

App Friday

Clicking polaroids with a smartphone

Do you miss the olden days when cameras used to have cellulose reels, the flash would get too hot after a click, and double exposures would lead to hilarious results? Well, now there’s an app for that.

The Old Roll camera app lets you create dreamy 80s-style pictures with its multiple camera mode offerings. It has over 50 lakh downloads and a 4.4 rating on Google Play Store.

Back to the future:

• Every camera mode has different features, quality, and lighting effects. The app does not offer any filters or the option to edit the pictures clicked.
• The Classic M mode comes with flash, EV button for brightness, and the good old camera shutter sound.
• You can create full-length videos or one-second videos on the DCR mode and collate them later into a short vlog.

Beauty

Inside Nykaa’s expansion plans

Beauty giant Nykaa is in expansion mode. Its parent, FSN E-Commerce Ventures Ltd, has partnered with Dubai-based Apparel Group to enter Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Oman and Kuwait, among other Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries.

“We see those markets (GCC countries) in terms of growth. There is also new pragmatism towards global economy, tourism and business,” Falguni Nayar, Founder and CEO, Nykaa said.

Beauty on the map:

• Apparel Group and Nykaa will set up a separate entity wherein FSN International will hold a 55% stake.
• With the alliance, Nykaa will be leveraging Apparel Group’s over 2,000 stores across GCC countries.
• Some of Nykaa’s in-house brands, including Nykaa Cosmetics, are listed on the horizontal ecommerce platform Noon.com in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

News & updates

• Speed bumps: The global economy will feel like it is in recession next year, the head of the IMF warned as the fund prepared to downgrade its economic forecasts again. Kristalina Georgieva said a third of the world’s economy would suffer at least two quarters of economic contraction in 2023.
• Renewed goal: Uber inked a deal with Motional to offer driverless deliveries and rides, rekindling its vision of a self-driving taxi fleet nearly two years after it sold its autonomous vehicle division. The 10-year deal will pair Motional’s all-electric IONIQ 5 robotaxis with Uber’s ride-hailing and delivery platform.
• Spoiler alert: Even as Americans cut back in the face of rising prices and recessionary fears, fewer want to give up their streaming subscriptions, such as Amazon Prime, Netflix and Spotify. Most people said they were more likely to cut back on dining out, groceries and clothing.

What you should watch out for

• Union Minister Piyush Goyal to meet export promotion councils to boost outbound shipments.
• Launch of Hero MotoCorp’s first electric scooter.
• The new season of Hero Indian Super League (ISL) starts today. 

Which was the last letter added to the English alphabet?

Answer: ‘J’ in 1524, added by Gian Giorgio Trissino, an Italian Renaissance grammarian.

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