Klaviyo acquires Elias Torres’ Agency in full-circle reunion for tech founders

Klaviyo Reunites with Former Mentor in Strategic AI Acquisition

Publicly traded e-commerce marketing platform Klaviyo has acquired Agency, a three-year-old AI-powered customer success startup, in a deal that brings serial entrepreneur Elias Torres into its executive ranks. The move represents a full-circle moment for Torres and Klaviyo co-founder and CEO Andrew Bialecki, whom Torres hired and mentored over a decade ago at Performable. This acquisition is primarily aimed at accelerating Klaviyo's development of AI agents for marketing and post-sale support.

The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed, but the strategic implications are clear. Agency had previously raised $32 million from investors including Sequoia and Menlo Ventures. As part of the transaction, Torres will join Klaviyo as chief product officer, leading his 25-person team to bolster Klaviyo’s AI initiatives. The focus will be on integrating Agency's expertise to advance Klaviyo's existing AI products.

• Leadership Change: Elias Torres appointed as Klaviyo's new chief product officer.
• Team Integration: Agency’s 25-person team will join Klaviyo.
• Product Focus: The team will accelerate development of Klaviyo's AI agents: Composer (for campaign building) and Customer Agent (for post-sale support).
• Founder History: Torres previously mentored Klaviyo CEO Andrew Bialecki and was an early angel investor in the company.

This move is a calculated 'acqui-hire' designed to embed proven entrepreneurial and technical leadership directly into Klaviyo's product organization. By bringing in Torres, who has a track record of successful M&A exits with Performable and Drift, Klaviyo gains a seasoned operator to navigate the increasingly competitive landscape of AI-driven customer interaction, where rivals like Decagon and Sierra are also building solutions. The reunion of Torres and Bialecki underscores a shared belief in the strategic importance of AI agents as the next major technology platform for businesses.

Klaviyo's acquisition of Agency is less about absorbing a specific technology and more a strategic acqui-hire to secure proven entrepreneurial talent, reuniting a successful mentor-mentee duo to lead its product evolution in the competitive AI agent market.