Torres, who previously co-founded Drift and Performable, will lead Agency’s 25-person team as Klaviyo’s chief product officer.
Klaviyo has agreed to acquire Agency, a three-year-old AI customer success startup founded by Elias Torres. The companies did not disclose the deal terms. Torres will join Klaviyo as chief product officer and lead Agency’s 25-person team.
Agency had raised $32 million from Sequoia, Menlo Ventures, and Felicis before the deal. Torres previously co-founded Performable, which HubSpot acquired in 2011, and Drift, which Vista Equity bought for $1.2 billion in 2021. Klaviyo co-founder Andrew Bialecki once worked under Torres at Performable and later invited Torres to invest in Klaviyo’s seed round.
For operators, the acquisition combines Agency’s customer success product with Klaviyo’s AI agents Composer and Customer Agent. Composer builds marketing campaigns, and Customer Agent handles post-sale support like returns and order tracking. Klaviyo’s leaders say years of customer data give these agents an advantage over competitors like Decagon and Sierra.
Torres will lead Agency’s team to accelerate development of Composer and Customer Agent. Klaviyo plans to bring the combined product to 200,000 businesses and expand to millions more over the next couple of years. The company’s stock has declined along with other SaaS shares, but executives are betting on AI agents as the next growth driver.
What matters
- Klaviyo acquired AI customer success startup Agency, bringing on founder Elias Torres as CPO.
- The acquisition gives operators AI agents that handle campaign creation and post-sale support.
- Watch whether Klaviyo’s AI agents can outpace competitors like Decagon and Sierra.
Why it matters
Watch whether Klaviyo’s AI agents can outpace competitors like Decagon and Sierra.
This GenAI News article was prepared in original wording using reporting and materials published by TechCrunch AI. Source reference: https://techcrunch.com/2026/08/05/klaviyo-acquires-elias-torres-agency-in-full-circle-reunion-for-tech-founders/.
Drafted by the GenAI News review pipeline.