India's leading payments solutions provider Paytm, run by One97 Communications Pvt. Ltd, has acquired Shifu, an Artificial Intelligence based personal assistant app for smartphones, for $8 million (about Rs 53.2 crore).
Delhi-based Shifu, run by Signal Inc., started operations in August 2012. Shifu is an intelligent personal assistant for android smartphones. Shifu bring Google Now like anticipatory capabilities to Call log , Phonebook ,Battery, App launchers, Reminders etc.
Signal was founded by Prashant Singh, Deepansh Jain and Michael Massey with a vision is to make phone anticipate and predict what you are going to do next and bring those things to you without you having to look for them.
Post acquisition, Shifu will shut down so its 20-member team can join different verticals at Paytm and work on integrating the app's technology into products like Paytm's mobile wallet and online marketplace.
"Through the acquisition, Paytm aims to leverage the tech infrastructure of Shifu to enrich the customer experience it offers to its users," Paytm said in a statement yesterday
By integrating Shifu's technology and behavioural modelling with Paytm app, Paytm Senior Vice President Kiran Vasireddy said, "we will be able to offer a highly intuitive and personalised experience to our users".
In November, Paytm acquired home service marketplace Near.in for an undisclosed amount to focus on online-to-offline (O2O) and hyperlocal commerce.
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