“Happier, healthier, more productive.” That was the goal of mobile app Astrid, and now Yahoo is taking up the mission as it’s just acquired the social productivity platform. Co-founded by a former Palantir engineer, Tim Su, AngelPad-backed Astrid says that it has four million users, who as of September 2012 logged 30 million plans on the platform.
Astrid, we have heard, had raised well over $1 million from investors that included, in addition to AngelPad, Google Ventures, Nexus Venture Partners, Jack Herrick and TMT Ventures.
Terms of the deal were not disclosed. But we’ve heard the price is “well over the amount you would pay for an acqui-hire.” Yahoo has been putting a strong emphasis on mobile in its future plans, making several other acquisitions in the area, such as the recent deal to buy Summly. Astrid not only gives Yahoo an existing base of mobile users, but also a productivity platform that Yahoo will now be able to scale out.
On the hiring side, the whole of the team, which is around 8-12 people, is joining Yahoo. That includes Tim Su and his big data expertise as well as Jon Paris, the co-founder and CEO, who before Astrid had also founded another startup, Graceful Tools, an event-planning site. (And before that, according to his CrunchBase entry, Paris had been a minister, with one previous role including Campus Director for the Stanford Chapter of InterVarsity, the Christian student group.)
As for the future of the app, “Over the next 90 days, Astrid will continue to work as is, and we will no longer be accepting new premium subscriptions,” the company notes in a blog post announcing the news. “To make future changes as easy as possible, we’ll be in touch with users shortly to share how to download data.” It doesn’t say what else Astrid will be doing after that.
Yahoo has also provided us with a statement: “We’re excited to welcome Astrid to Yahoo!’s mobile team. Their background in personalized mobile experiences is impressive, and we know they will be a huge asset to as we continue to re-imagine our products,” said a spokesperson.
“We’re really excited to join the mobile team and continue this work with Yahoo!’s goal of ‘making the world’s daily habits more inspiring and entertaining,'” Paris notes on behalf of the Astrid team in the blog post.
Launched back in 2008, Astrid was a pioneer in the email management and to-do app space. Now it runs on iPhone, iPad, Android, Windows and desktop and mobile web. The app lets you create lists and reminders, and share them with others. It also integrates with Siri on iOS to add voice-based reminders.
If some of Astrid’s technology does end up getting used at Yahoo, the acquisition gives Yahoo a potential lever to compete with apps like Mailbox, Evernote and Wunderlist. On the email front, one of the features that Astrid touts is that it can help users clean up their inboxes in 30 minutes.