Klaviyo acquires AI customer success startup Agency; founder Elias Torres joins as CPO

Klaviyo Acquires Agency

Klaviyo, a publicly traded e-commerce marketing automation platform, has acquired Agency, an AI-powered customer success startup. The financial terms of the acquisition were not disclosed. Agency, founded in 2023 by Elias Torres, had previously secured $32 million in funding from investors including Sequoia, Menlo Ventures, and Felicis.

Leadership and Integration

As part of the acquisition, Elias Torres will join Klaviyo as Chief Product Officer. His 25-person team from Agency will integrate into Klaviyo to enhance the development and expansion of Klaviyo's AI agents. These agents include Composer, which creates marketing campaigns, and Customer Agent, which manages post-sale support tasks such as returns and order tracking.

Strategic Rationale

Klaviyo co-founder and CEO Andrew Bialecki stated that combining Agency's product with Klaviyo's existing agent products aims to serve a larger business base. Both Torres and Bialecki believe that Klaviyo's extensive customer data provides its AI agents with a competitive advantage over other companies in the sector.

Founders' History

This acquisition marks a reunion for Torres and Bialecki, who previously worked together at Performable. Torres, a serial entrepreneur, had hired Bialecki as one of the first engineers at Performable in 2010. Torres later invested in Klaviyo's seed round in 2015 after Bialecki co-founded the company. Klaviyo went public in September 2023 with a $9.2 billion valuation.