# Klaviyo acquires Agency AI led by serial founder Elias Torres, names him CPO

> Klaviyo, the publicly traded marketing platform, is acquiring Agency AI, a startup that had raised about $32 million from Sequoia, Menlo Ventures, and Felicis, to bolster its push into agentic software. Terms were not disclosed, but the deal brings over Agency's roughly 25-person team and its technology, and installs co-founder Elias Torres as Klaviyo's chief product officer overseeing its AI agents, including its Composer and Customer Agent products. The acquisition has a neat full-circle quality. Torres once hired Klaviyo's current CEO, Andrew Bialecki, at an earlier startup called Performable back in 2010, and Bialecki went on to found Klaviyo. Now the two are reunited, with the serial founder reporting into the executive he once brought on board. Strategically, Klaviyo wants to put AI agents in front of the roughly 200,000 businesses on its e-commerce platform, automating the marketing and customer tasks those merchants handle today. The deal is a small example of a larger pattern, where established software companies buy their way into agentic capabilities and the experienced founders who can build them, rather than growing the expertise from scratch.

_Section: [AI Funding Tracker](https://www.wortins.com/funding) · Source: TechCrunch · Published Sunday, August 16, 2026_

## Wortins' read

Klaviyo, the publicly traded marketing platform, is acquiring Agency AI, a startup that had raised about $32 million from Sequoia, Menlo Ventures, and Felicis, to bolster its push into agentic software. Terms were not disclosed, but the deal brings over Agency's roughly 25-person team and its technology, and installs co-founder Elias Torres as Klaviyo's chief product officer overseeing its AI agents, including its Composer and Customer Agent products. The acquisition has a neat full-circle quality. Torres once hired Klaviyo's current CEO, Andrew Bialecki, at an earlier startup called Performable back in 2010, and Bialecki went on to found Klaviyo. Now the two are reunited, with the serial founder reporting into the executive he once brought on board. Strategically, Klaviyo wants to put AI agents in front of the roughly 200,000 businesses on its e-commerce platform, automating the marketing and customer tasks those merchants handle today. The deal is a small example of a larger pattern, where established software companies buy their way into agentic capabilities and the experienced founders who can build them, rather than growing the expertise from scratch.

## Source

[Read the full story at TechCrunch](https://techcrunch.com/2026/08/05/klaviyo-acquires-elias-torres-agency-in-full-circle-reunion-for-tech-founders/)

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