The acquisition marks a full-circle moment for the two founders. In 2010, Torres hired Bialecki as an early engineer at Performable, mentoring him on startup operations before Bialecki went on to bootstrap Klaviyo. The connection remained strong; Bialecki later invited Torres to participate in Klaviyo’s 2015 seed round as an angel investor. Now, Torres joins the company as chief product officer to scale its AI-driven Composer and Customer Agent tools.
In section Startups & Technology
Klaviyo Acquires AI Startup Agency in Reunion for Tech Founders
Elias Torres is returning to work with his former protégé, Klaviyo CEO Andrew Bialecki, as the publicly traded marketing platform acquires Torres’ three-year-old AI startup, Agency. The deal brings the 25-person Agency team into the fold to accelerate the development of Klaviyo’s autonomous customer support and marketing agents.
Agency, which secured $32 million from backers including Sequoia and Menlo Ventures, was built to refine customer success workflows. Bialecki intends to leverage this technology to support Klaviyo’s current base of 200,000 businesses. Despite recent volatility in SaaS stock valuations since Klaviyo’s $9.2 billion IPO in 2023, the leadership team maintains that the company’s deep repository of historical customer data provides a distinct competitive edge in the crowded AI agent market.
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