Paytm acquires Shifu

Payments service provider Paytm, run by One97 Communications Pvt. Ltd, has acquired consumer behavior prediction and recommendation platform Shifu for $8 Million. Delhi based Shifu, run by Signal Inc. started operations in August 2012. It mines the smartphone usage patterns of users and makes personalized recommendations to them.

Shifu has been quite popular as an intelligent task managing application. This acquisition will give further impetus to focus on Artificial Intelligence. By predicting user behavior based on past usage, location and other data points, Paytm platform will be able to offer relevant recommendations to users. Paytm will be able to offer a highly intuitive and personalized experience to users.

Shifu is a free task managing app. Once the app is installed, it analyses the usage patterns of the device owner and makes a variety of suggestions based on a predictive algorithm. Paytm has been actively investing in startups. The company in October invested in transportation app Jugnoo, in Hyperlocal deals platform ‘Little’ in July, and in logistics startup LogiNext.

Noida based Paytm currently has a user base of more than 100 Million. The company is backed by investors including Alibaba Group, Saif Partners, Sapphire Venture and Silicon Valley Bank. Paytm which started out as payments solutions providers ventured into e-commerce in May 2014. In November, Paytm acquired home service marketplace Near.in for an undisclosed amount to focus on O2O and Hyperlocal commerce.

Rocket's Indian Firms expanding Globally

Rocket Internet is one of the world largest e-commerce venture capital firms. Samwer Brothers started it in 2007 in Germany. The founders gained visibility through successful investments in eBay, Groupon, Facebook, Jabong, LinkedIn, and Zynga. The company business model is to find successful internet ventures from other countries and replicate them in emerging markets.

Rocket Internet operates in more than 50 countries and has more than 75 ventures such as Zolando in Germany; Lamoda in Russia, Zalora in South East Asia, Iconic in Australia, global food delivery sites Foodpanda, and property listing sites Lamudi and Carmudi. In India, Rocket Internet operates Jabong and Printvenue. Rocket Internet wants to be world largest e-commerce platform outside the U.S and China. By the end of this year, Rocket Internet Group may close its initial public offering. It would be second e-commerce firm IPO this year, after Alibaba.

One of the Indian E-commerce firms Printvenue plans to start operations in Australia with a team of marketing, content, and sourcing. There is no competitive environment in Australia for the company. It will soon be seen in Asia-Pacific Region such as South East and Middle East too. Over the next four five years, Printvenue plans to venture into Europe, and Latin America. Printvenue is already operating in Singapore with a small team.

Earlier this month, German venture capital group decided to take online fashion retailer Jabong.com to a global platform by merging it with four other such businesses in Latin America, Russia, Middle East, South East Asia, and Australia. Jabong has also opened an office in London where a team of 15-20 people will design its private label. These steps of Rocket Internet taking portfolio companies global were always on its agenda and these are linked to upcoming IPO.

Its global online food-ordering firm, Foodpanda is continuously expanding into developing markets. Foodpanda is present in more than 45 countries across Asia, Africa, Eastern Europe, Middle East, and Latin America. After Jack Ma Alibaba, soon people will see Billionaires from Germany and Rocket Internet world largest e-commerce venture capitalist firm.

DHL to test e-commerce model in India

DHL is a division of the German Logistic company Deutsche Post DHL providing international express mail services. DHL is the world market leader in sea and airmail. It was founded in 1969 to deliver documents between Honolulu and San Francisco. DHL is serving in countries such as Iraq, Iran, China, Vietnam, North Korea, and Soviet Union. Deutsche Post DHL has chosen India to pilot its e-commerce business model for Asia-Pacific region and will invest more than €100 million in country over the next two years to create infrastructure.

Globally, e-retail is rapidly evolving. Over the next five years, the global e-commerce sector is expected to grow by more than 10% per annum. Asian region is expected to surpass North America and Europe as the biggest online market in the world. It is a huge opportunity for DHL to become the world’s largest provider of e-commerce logistics. Over 20 online retailers including Flipkart, Snapdeal, Urban Ladder, Fashionandyou, and LimeRoad have venture capital funds in the past four months. More are in talks to raise funds in the next six months.

Flipkart rising revenues, its acquisition of Myntra, the rise in shopping on smartphones and the change of government centre aided in attracting investors. The hype around the Initial Public Offering (IPO) of Chinese e-commerce company Alibaba has revived hope that if China can come up with large e-commerce businesses, so can India. Online retail is estimated to grow to $22 Billion in five years. DHL is present in 220 countries with 315,000 employees. DHL holds 75% stake in India listed small parcel transportation firm Blue Dart Express.

DHL will start 15 e-fulfillment centres to facilitate e-commerce business in metros including New Delhi, Bangalore, and Mumbai. There are also plans to start such centres in Tier-II and Tier-III cities including Coimbatore and Jaipur. DHL is specialized in providing integrated logistics solutions. DHL and Blue dart are moving away from vanilla transportation to specialized and Integrated Service.