Behavio Team Take Prediction Expertise to Google

The team behind start-up Behavio, which collects and uses mobile phone data to predict users' future behavior, has joined search giant Google.

Behavio was founded last year by MIT Media Lab alumni Nadav Aharony, Cody Sumter and Alan Gardner, whose open source Funf platform collects mobile data and analyses social and behavioral trends. By combining this with other data about individuals, the firm can predict their future actions, such as places they are most likely to visit next. Last year, the company won $355k from the Knight Foundation for the Funf platform.

In a statement on their web site, the trio said: 'We are very excited to announce that the Behavio team is now a part of Google. At Behavio, we have always been passionate about helping people better understand the world around them, and we couldn't be happier to be able to continue building out our vision within Google.'

The team will shut down its closed alpha program, but will put aside time from Google to continue to maintain the Funf platform.

Web sites: www.behav.io and www.google.com .