Klaviyo, the publicly traded e-commerce marketing automation platform, has agreed to acquire Agency, a three-year-old AI-powered customer success startup founded by serial entrepreneur Elias Torres. The deal, announced Monday, brings Torres back into the fold as chief product officer, reuniting him with Klaviyo CEO Andrew Bialecki — a former mentee who got his start under Torres more than a decade ago.
Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed. Agency had raised $32 million from investors including Sequoia, Menlo Ventures, and Felicis since its founding in 2023.
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A reunion rooted in early startup history
The acquisition marks a full-circle moment for Torres, who has a long history of successful exits. He co-founded Performable, which HubSpot acquired in 2011, and later co-founded Drift, where he served as CTO for eight years until the company was sold to Vista Equity for $1.2 billion in 2021.
But the deeper connection lies in 2010, when Torres hired Bialecki — a Harvard graduate of two years — as one of Performable’s first engineers. Torres mentored Bialecki on early-stage startup dynamics, and Bialecki later co-founded Klaviyo, which he initially bootstrapped. When Klaviyo raised its first outside capital in 2015, Bialecki invited Torres to participate as an angel investor.
“He soaked it up in a short amount of time,” Torres recalled of their time working together.
What the deal means for Klaviyo’s AI strategy
As part of the deal, Torres will lead Agency’s 25-person team to accelerate development of Klaviyo’s AI agents: Composer, which builds marketing campaigns, and Customer Agent, which handles post-sale support like returns and order tracking.
“Elias and the team built a great product with Agency,” Bialecki told TechCrunch. “We’re going to take that and combine it with our agent products and try to bring that to 200,000 businesses—and hopefully to millions more over the next couple of years.”
Klaviyo, which completed a high-profile IPO in September 2023 at a $9.2 billion valuation, has seen its stock decline along with other SaaS companies. But Bialecki and Torres argue that Klaviyo’s years of customer data give its AI agents a competitive edge over rivals like Decagon and Sierra.
“Elias and I coalesced on the mission of how we provide agents for businesses that they can give to their customers,” Bialecki said. “It’s the next big tech revolution: agents. Let’s get the band back together, and let’s go build.”
Why this matters for the AI agent market
The acquisition is part of a broader wave of consolidation in the AI customer service space, where startups are racing to deploy agents that can handle everything from marketing to post-sale support. Klaviyo’s move signals that established platforms are betting on specialized AI talent and technology to differentiate themselves in a crowded market.
For Torres, the return to Klaviyo represents more than just a career move — it’s a homecoming to the company he helped shape in its earliest days. The deal also highlights the growing trend of founders returning to companies they once mentored, a dynamic that is becoming increasingly common as the tech industry matures.
Klaviyo’s stock response to the announcement will be closely watched by investors, as will the integration of Agency’s technology into Klaviyo’s existing product suite. The company is expected to provide more details on the roadmap in its next earnings call.
Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial advice. The cryptocurrency and technology markets are volatile and uncertain; readers should conduct their own research before making any investment decisions.
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