Paytm has acquired Shifu, a consumer behavior prediction platform for an undisclosed amount. An ET Telecom report pegs the deal at around $8 million. Post acquisition, Shifu’s team of 20 along with its 3 co-founders will join Paytm, where they will be responsible for bettering the consumer experience. According to Paytm, Shifu’s data and prediction tools for preferences and behavior will help it offer personalized services. As of now Shifu offers a ‘smart’ to do list manager app, with features like call forecast based on location, battery alerts, location based alerts, WiFi based alerts, missed call alerts and app suggestion. The app essentially picks up cues from user behaviour to make recommendations based on usage history, location etc., to display relevant apps, contacts and other information in the notification bar. Shifu was founded by Prashant Singh, Deepansh Jain and Michael Massey back in June 2013, and was even recommended by Lifehacker the same year as the smartest to-do app around. However, post the acqui-hire, we expect the app won’t be supported anymore. Near.in acquisition: Last month Paytm acquired Gurgaon-based services marketplace Near.in for $2 million. Near.in co-founders Lomesh Dutta and Suni Goyal would join Paytm as vice presidents, while Near.in’s early investors would exit the company. This was Paytm’s third investment in an online-to-offline service; it previously invested an undisclosed amount in the hyperlocal delivery and auto rickshaw hailing app Jugnoo in November, and had participated in a $50 million funding round for establishing an online to offline app-only marketplace called Little…
