“`html
Klaviyo, a publicly traded e-commerce marketing automation company, has acquired Agency, an artificial intelligence-focused customer success startup established in 2023. The three-year-old firm, which had secured $32 million in funding from prominent investors including Sequoia and Menlo Ventures, will now operate under Klaviyo’s ownership. The acquisition terms were not made public.
Elias Torres, Agency’s founder and a seasoned entrepreneur, will assume the role of chief product officer at Klaviyo following the acquisition. In this position, he will oversee the 25-member Agency team and direct efforts to strengthen Klaviyo’s AI agent offerings, specifically Composer and Customer Agent. These tools are designed to automate marketing campaign creation and manage post-purchase customer interactions including returns and order management.
The deal represents a significant reunion for Torres and Klaviyo co-founder Andrew Bialecki, whose professional relationship began over 15 years ago. Torres originally recruited Bialecki at Performable, an earlier venture that HubSpot acquired in 2011. Following Bialecki’s departure from Performable, he established Klaviyo and later invited Torres to participate as an early investor. Klaviyo achieved a notable public market debut in September 2023 at a $9.2 billion valuation.
Bialecki emphasized that the combined resources will enable Klaviyo to expand its AI agent capabilities to hundreds of thousands of businesses. Both executives view artificial intelligence agents as the upcoming technological wave and expressed enthusiasm about collaborating again during this transformative industry phase.
“`
Originally reported by Techcrunch →
About the Author
