Circeus buys Dondy to add WhatsApp commerce agents to Shop Circle

Circeus has acquired Dondy, a conversational commerce platform used by more than 70,000 businesses, and will fold the company into Shop Circle, its agentic commerce software division. The London-based AI-native holding company did not disclose the purchase price, valuation, revenue or headcount involved in the deal.

Dondy sells software for merchant conversations across WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook and website chat. Circeus is betting that those channels can become revenue and support infrastructure rather than add-ons around email, SMS and helpdesk tools.

The company says Dondy already processes more than $100 million in annual merchant orders and more than 1 million customer conversations a year through WhatsApp. It also says Dondy holds the top ranking in Shopify’s App Store categories for “WhatsApp” and “WhatsApp Marketing.”

What Dondy adds

Dondy’s product places AI agents inside customer chat threads. Circeus says the agents can send reminders for abandoned carts, provide delivery updates and answer customer questions with tailored responses rather than scripted replies. The longer-term plan is for the system to complete workflows such as purchases, returns, upsells and reactivation campaigns inside the same conversation.

According to Circeus, Dondy’s AI agents are already used in production by thousands of merchants, and 70% of conversations for merchants using the agents are handled and resolved end to end by AI. The company also says the product operates continuously and supports multiple languages.

Luca Cartechini, Circeus co-founder and CEO, and Carlos Villanueva, general manager of Shop Circle and part of Circeus’ founding team, told Tech Funding News that WhatsApp has largely been treated by businesses as a messaging or support channel, despite its reach. They said Circeus wants to apply a model in which AI systems deliver business outcomes, rather than only helping staff complete tasks.

That framing is common in AI software acquisitions, and Circeus did not disclose the financial profile that would show how far Dondy has moved beyond app-store traction into durable revenue. The operational metrics it did disclose point to meaningful commerce volume, especially for a category where many merchants still rely on separate tools for marketing, support and live chat.

Part of a broader acquisition push

The Dondy deal follows Circeus’ recent acquisition of Encodian, a document automation provider built around the Microsoft Power Platform. Circeus has described a strategy of buying software products already embedded in business workflows, then adding AI capabilities across product and operations.

Circeus recently raised new equity funding from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and other investors. The company says it has more than $100 million available to deploy and expects several more acquisitions of what it calls mission-critical software companies in the coming months.

Dondy will connect to Circeus’ shared AI platform and central engineering resources, according to the company. Circeus also says it will apply group playbooks across product, pricing and operations, while Dondy continues to be supported by its existing team and Circeus’ broader internal platform.

Dondy co-founders Tamir Or, Or Schreiber and Inbal Katz told Tech Funding News that joining Circeus could help the company grow 10 times over the coming years. They did not provide a financial baseline for that target.

Circeus says the next phase for Dondy is to expand its agents across sales, support and marketing, with future channel coverage expected to include email, TikTok, Telegram and other customer touchpoints. The company’s central claim is that merchant conversations can become autonomous commerce workflows. The deal gives Circeus a live product with existing order volume, but the terms and economics remain undisclosed.

This story draws on original reporting from TechFundingNews.