Klaviyo Acquires AI Startup Agency as Founder Elias Torres Joins as Chief Product Officer

August 5, 2026

Publicly traded e-commerce marketing automation platform Klaviyo has agreed to acquire Agency, an artificial intelligence-powered customer success startup founded in 2023 by serial entrepreneur Elias Torres. As part of the acquisition, Torres will join Klaviyo as Chief Product Officer, leading Agency’s 25-person team to accelerate the expansion of Klaviyo’s AI agent technology.

What Happened

Klaviyo reached an agreement to acquire Agency, a three-year-old startup focused on AI customer success. While financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed, Agency had secured $32 million in funding prior to the acquisition from investors including Sequoia, Menlo Ventures, and Felicis.

Following the deal, Elias Torres will serve as Klaviyo’s Chief Product Officer. He will lead Agency’s 25-person team within Klaviyo to develop and expand the company’s AI agents. These include Composer, which generates marketing campaigns, and Customer Agent, which handles post-sale support operations such as order tracking and returns.

Key Highlights

Acquisition Agreement: Klaviyo is acquiring AI customer success startup Agency for an undisclosed amount.
Leadership Integration: Agency founder Elias Torres becomes Klaviyo’s Chief Product Officer alongside Agency’s 25-person team.
Prior Venture Support: Agency raised $32 million from Sequoia, Menlo Ventures, and Felicis before the deal.
Product Focus: The acquisition will advance Klaviyo’s AI agents, including Composer for marketing and Customer Agent for post-sale support.
Founder History: Torres previously co-founded Performable, acquired by HubSpot in 2011, and Drift, acquired for $1.2 billion by Vista Equity in 2021.
Longstanding Relationship: Torres originally hired Klaviyo co-founder and CEO Andrew Bialecki at Performable in 2010 and later invested in Klaviyo’s 2015 seed round.

Why This Matters

The acquisition represents a full-circle reunion for Torres and Klaviyo co-founder and CEO Andrew Bialecki. In 2010, Torres hired Bialecki, who graduated from Harvard two years prior, as an early engineer at Performable, where Torres mentored him on early-stage startup dynamics. Bialecki later founded Klaviyo, initially bootstrapping the business, and invited Torres to back Klaviyo’s seed round as an angel investor when it raised outside capital in 2015.

Klaviyo completed a high-profile initial public offering in September 2023 at a $9.2 billion valuation. Despite broader SaaS stock declines, Bialecki and Torres view Klaviyo’s extensive customer data as a critical competitive advantage for its AI agents over rivals such as Decagon and Sierra.

Bialecki stated that Klaviyo intends to integrate Agency’s technology with its own agent suite to reach 200,000 businesses currently, with plans to expand to millions more over the coming years.

What to Watch Next

Klaviyo plans to combine Agency’s product capabilities with its current AI tools to deploy agents across its client base of 200,000 businesses. Moving forward, the company aims to extend these AI capabilities to millions of additional businesses while leveraging its historical customer data against industry competitors like Decagon and Sierra.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is Agency and what does it do?

Agency is an AI-powered customer success startup founded in 2023 by serial entrepreneur Elias Torres. The startup raised $32 million from investors such as Sequoia, Menlo Ventures, and Felicis before agreeing to be acquired by Klaviyo.

What role will Elias Torres play at Klaviyo?

Elias Torres joins Klaviyo as Chief Product Officer (CPO), heading Agency’s 25-person team to focus on expanding Klaviyo’s AI agents.

What are Klaviyo’s current AI agents?

Klaviyo’s existing AI agents include Composer, designed for building marketing campaigns, and Customer Agent, which manages post-sale tasks like order tracking and returns.

How did Andrew Bialecki and Elias Torres first connect?

Torres hired Bialecki as an engineer at Performable in 2010 and mentored him. Bialecki subsequently co-founded Klaviyo and brought on Torres as an early angel investor during Klaviyo’s 2015 seed round.

Source: Information sourced directly from TechCrunch reporting.