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Hello,

Barbenheimer is finally here, folks.

The two blockbuster movies—Greta Gerwig’s Barbie and Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer—are projected to make about $200 million in the United States alone over this weekend. YS Life finds out how movie aficionados are planning for the exciting double feature.

Elsewhere in the entertainment industry, Netflix’s second-quarter revenue failed to meet expectations despite the company’s crackdown on password sharing, which helped it gain nearly six million new subscribers in the previous quarter.

In the US and UK, Netflix cancelled its cheapest ad-free plan to draw more subscribers to its ad-supported tier. Closer home, the company has just begun its password-sharing crackdown in India. Starting July 20, users in India will only be able to share their passwords with members of their households. But how it will do that remains unclear.

Meanwhile, Sequoia and Tiger Global-backed surgery care startup Pristyn Care suspended the founders of clinic management software provider Lybrate, which it had acquired in June 2022. Founders of Lybrate, Rahul Narang and Saurabh Arora, reportedly served a notice to Pristyn Care on July 18 demanding outstanding payouts as part of the acquisition completed a year ago, said media reports.

ICYMI: The planet is heating up and the data is here to prove it.

Last but not least, it turns out that sea turtles have 3000-year-old routines.

The truest ‘creatures of habit’.

In today’s newsletter, we will talk about 

• Swiggy bets on AI for app’s new features
• Infosys reports 11% rise in net profit 
• Jio Financial Services surprises market

Here’s your trivia for today: Which company made the first commercial flash-based SSD (solid-state drive)?

Foodtech

Swiggy to launch AI features on app

Food delivery firm Swiggy is launching a neural search feature powered by artificial intelligence (AI) on its app.

The new feature, which will be rolled out in pilot mode, will enable voice typing and tailored recommendations for food and grocery delivery. The move is intended to make ordering on the app fun, effortless, and relevant, Madhusudhan Rao, Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of Swiggy, tells YourStory.

Ask AI:

• Swiggy said the search feature has been built using a Large Language Model (LLM) adapted to understand dish, recipe, and restaurant terminology, as well as Swiggy-specific search data. 
• The Prosus-backed food delivery firm intends to eventually expand the generative AI-backed feature to all its verticals—food delivery, Instamart, and dining out.
• Swiggy, which has more than 2.5 lakh restaurant partners in over a hundred cities in India, introduced a tracking tool earlier in July, aiming to help restaurant partners use data to strategise their network expansion. 

<Funding Alert>

Startup: PingSafe

Amount: $3.3M

Round: Seed

Startup: Metabook XR

Amount: Undisclosed

Round: Seed

Startup: Dusminute 

Amount: Rs 11.5 Cr

Round: Bridge

IT services

Infosys Q1 net profit up 11%

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Infosys headquarters in Bengaluru

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Infosys, India’s second-largest IT services exporter, reported a 10.9% rise in net profit for the April-June quarter. The company, however, said its revenue for the current fiscal will grow in the range of 1-3.5% lower than its earlier guidance of 4-7%.

Report card: 

• Infosys reported a net profit of Rs 5,945 crore for the first quarter (Q1). During the same period, the revenue came in at Rs 37,933 crore, a year-on-year (YoY) growth of 10%.
• The company said it reached a total contract value of $2.3 billion in the first quarter. 
• Its performance in Q1 is in line with its peers such as Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Wipro, and HCLTech.

Fintech

Jio Financial Services valued at Rs 261.85 a share

Jio Financial Services Limited, the demerged financial services unit of Reliance Industries Ltd, took the market by surprise on Thursday after its share price touched Rs 261.85 per share on the National Stock Exchange—much higher than analysts’ estimate—at the end of a special pre-open call auction session on the stock exchanges.  

Soaring high:

• Market analysts had initially estimated the share price of Jio Financial Services to be valued between Rs 160 and Rs 190 per share. 
• The unit falls under Mukesh Ambani’s new plan to tap the growing demand for financial services in the country, including lending, insurance, digital broking, and asset management. 
• Its entry into the market is touted as a major challenge to not just established financiers such as Bajaj Finance, HDFC Bank, and Kotak Finance in the retail lending sector but also major fintech players such as Paytm and PhonePe. 

News & updates

• Growing: Amazon will start streaming BBC shows in India, opening up a new front in an intensifying entertainment war in one of the world’s largest media markets. From Thursday, India-based Prime members will be able to watch popular British mainstays on BBC Player.
• Steadying: India’s smartphone market stabilised in the second quarter with 36.1 million units shipped, according to a report by Canalys. This is a 1% dip from a year ago, far better than the 20% drop in the first quarter. Shipments also declined by 27% and 6% in the fourth and third quarter of 2022.
• Proactive: TikTok opened up its research software to researchers in Europe ahead of upcoming EU rules requiring Big Tech to do more to police online content. It is one of 19 online platforms and search engines subject to tougher requirements that will kick in from August under DSA.

Which company made the first commercial flash-based SSD (solid-state drive)?

Answer: SanDisk in 1991. The SSD was built for IBM and had a 20 MB capacity.

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