Hilos
WhatsApp automation for lead profiling, follow-ups, and CRM integrations
Website: https://hilos.io/en
Cover Block
PUBLIC
| Attribute | Value |
|---|---|
| Name | Hilos |
| Tagline | WhatsApp automation for lead profiling, follow-ups, and CRM integrations |
| Headquarters | Mexico City |
| Founded | 2021 |
| Stage | Exited |
| Business Model | SaaS |
| Industry | Other |
| Technology | Software (Non-AI) |
| Geography | Latin America |
| Growth Profile | Venture Scale |
| Founding Team | Alfonso Lizárraga [LinkedIn] |
| Funding Label | Seed |
| Total Disclosed | Not disclosed |
Links
PUBLIC
- Website: https://hilos.io/en
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/hilos-io/
Executive Summary
PUBLIC
Hilos automates business-to-consumer messaging on WhatsApp, a channel that dominates daily communication in Latin America, and its acquisition by marketing automation leader ActiveCampaign validates the strategic value of embedding this capability into a broader customer experience platform [activecampaign.com]. Founded in 2021 and accelerated through Y Combinator's S22 batch, the company built a no-code SaaS platform for lead capture, automated follow-ups, and CRM integration specifically for the WhatsApp Business API [hilos.io]. The product's core differentiation rests on its focus on the LATAM market, where WhatsApp is the primary messaging channel for commerce, and its design as an integrated inbox and flow builder rather than a simple broadcast tool [hilos.io].
Founder Alfonso Lizárraga's background is not detailed in public sources, but the YC selection and subsequent acquisition by a public company suggest early execution was recognized by sophisticated evaluators [LinkedIn]. The company raised an undisclosed seed round, with its ultimate exit providing a liquidity event for early backers while folding the technology into ActiveCampaign's product suite [hilos.io]. The business model is subscription SaaS, with pricing tiers based on features and message volume, though specific revenue figures are not public [hilos.io].
Over the next 12-18 months, the key watchpoint is how effectively ActiveCampaign integrates Hilos's WhatsApp-native workflows to create a true cross-channel automation leader, and whether the combined entity can use its LATAM beachhead to capture enterprise market share from global competitors [enterprisetimes.co.uk].
Data Accuracy: YELLOW -- Core product claims and acquisition are confirmed via primary company sources; founder background and financial details are limited.
Taxonomy Snapshot
| Axis | Classification |
|---|---|
| Stage | Exited |
| Business Model | SaaS |
| Industry / Vertical | Other |
| Technology Type | Software (Non-AI) |
| Geography | Latin America |
| Growth Profile | Venture Scale |
| Funding | Seed |
Company Overview
PUBLIC
Hilos operates as a SaaS platform for WhatsApp automation, founded in 2021 and based in Mexico City. The company's founding story is not detailed in public sources, but its participation in Y Combinator's Summer 2022 batch provides a clear early milestone [LinkedIn].
The company's primary public milestone is its acquisition by ActiveCampaign, a marketing automation platform, in 2025. The acquisition was announced via a press release from ActiveCampaign, which stated the deal was intended to strengthen its cross-channel marketing capabilities with native WhatsApp automation [activecampaign.com]. Following the acquisition, Hilos continues to operate with a focus on WhatsApp, now as part of a larger platform [hilos.io].
Data Accuracy: YELLOW -- Key milestones (founding, YC, acquisition) are confirmed by primary sources, but detailed founding narrative and legal entity are not publicly available.
Product and Technology
MIXED
Hilos offers a suite of tools built specifically on the WhatsApp Business API, a platform choice that reflects the messaging app's dominance in its primary Latin American market. The core product is a unified inbox that allows teams to manage all WhatsApp conversations from a single dashboard, with features for tagging contacts, assigning conversations to agents, and tracking statuses [hilos.io]. This centralization is designed to replace the fragmented experience of using the native WhatsApp application for business communications.
Beyond basic inbox management, the platform provides a visual flow builder for creating automated conversation sequences, which the company describes as chatbots for lead qualification, customer support, and follow-up campaigns [hilos.io]. A key component of its value proposition is direct integration with popular CRM and marketing automation platforms, notably HubSpot and its parent company, ActiveCampaign [hilos.io]. This connectivity aims to close the loop between WhatsApp interactions and a company's central customer database.
The technology stack is not detailed in public materials, but the product's reliance on the official WhatsApp Cloud API [Hilos Docs] suggests a server-side architecture focused on scalability and compliance with Meta's platform policies. The acquisition by ActiveCampaign has introduced a new, [PUBLIC] cross-platform capability, allowing the automation of WhatsApp messages directly from within ActiveCampaign's own workflow canvas [activecampaign.com]. This integration represents the most significant post-acquisition product evolution visible to external observers.
Data Accuracy: YELLOW -- Product claims are sourced from the company's website and official documentation, but lack independent technical verification or detailed customer case studies.
Market Research
PUBLIC The market for business-to-consumer communication tools is being reshaped by a single application's dominance in Latin America, where WhatsApp has become the default channel for commercial interaction. For startups like Hilos, this creates a specific, high-growth niche within the broader customer engagement software category, distinct from the more saturated SMS and email automation markets in North America and Europe.
Quantifying the exact addressable market for WhatsApp Business API solutions in Latin America is challenging due to the rapid, platform-specific nature of its growth. Public analyst reports on the broader conversational commerce market, which includes social messaging and chatbots, provide an analogous reference. Grand View Research estimated the global conversational commerce market size at $13.5 billion in 2023 and projects it to grow at a compound annual rate of 22.2% through 2030 [Grand View Research, 2023]. While not specific to WhatsApp or Latin America, this growth rate underscores the significant capital and operational focus shifting towards messaging-based customer interactions.
Demand is driven by several clear tailwinds. WhatsApp's penetration in Latin America is exceptionally high, with over 90% of internet users in countries like Brazil and Mexico using the platform [Statista, 2023]. This creates a natural environment for businesses to meet customers where they already are. Furthermore, the official WhatsApp Business API, launched by Meta, provides a regulated and scalable pathway for medium and large businesses to automate conversations, moving beyond the manual limitations of the consumer app. The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated digital adoption across the region, cementing messaging as a primary channel for sales, support, and marketing [World Bank, 2022].
Key adjacent markets include traditional email service providers (ESPs) and customer relationship management (CRM) platforms, which are now expanding into omnichannel engagement. The acquisition of Hilos by ActiveCampaign, a major ESP, is a direct example of this convergence, where email-centric platforms are acquiring native WhatsApp capabilities to offer a unified suite. Substitute markets are limited; while SMS remains a fallback, its higher cost and lower engagement rates in the region make WhatsApp a more attractive primary channel for many businesses.
Regulatory forces present both a risk and a moat. Meta's control over the WhatsApp Business API and its partner ecosystem means access is gated and terms can change, which could impact pricing or feature availability for platforms like Hilos. However, this same gatekeeping creates a barrier to entry for unapproved solutions, favoring official API partners. Data privacy regulations, such as Brazil's LGPD, also impose compliance requirements on businesses handling customer messaging data, which established platforms are better positioned to navigate.
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| Global Conversational Commerce (2023) | 13.5 $B |
| Projected CAGR (2023-2030) | 22.2 % |
The projected growth rate for the broader conversational commerce market suggests strong underlying demand, though Hilos's specific opportunity is narrower, tied directly to WhatsApp's expansion of its business tools in Latin America. The lack of a precise, third-party TAM for this niche is typical for emerging platform-specific software categories.
Data Accuracy: YELLOW -- Market size and growth rate are cited from a third-party analyst report for an analogous, broader market. Regional WhatsApp penetration is from a named publisher. Specific TAM for WhatsApp Business solutions in LATAM is not publicly available from independent sources.
Competitive Landscape
MIXED Hilos operates in a crowded field of messaging automation platforms, but its post-acquisition strategy carves out a specific niche within a larger ecosystem.
| Company | Positioning | Stage / Funding | Notable Differentiator | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hilos | WhatsApp automation integrated into a broader marketing automation suite (ActiveCampaign). | Exited (Acquired by ActiveCampaign). | Native integration with ActiveCampaign's platform, providing a unified cross-channel workflow. | [activecampaign.com] |
| Wati | Enterprise WhatsApp API platform for customer engagement. | Series B ($23M). | Focus on large-scale customer support and commerce use cases with a robust API. | [Crunchbase] |
| Trengo | Omnichannel customer service inbox unifying WhatsApp, social media, email, and more. | Venture capital-backed (€30M total). | Centralized agent inbox for managing conversations from multiple channels in one view. | [Crunchbase] |
| AiSensy | WhatsApp marketing and support automation with a strong focus on the Indian market. | Series A ($8M). | Deep penetration in India with features tailored for local business workflows and compliance. | [Inc42] |
The competitive map for WhatsApp business tools is fragmented across several layers. At the infrastructure level, Meta's own WhatsApp Business API and Cloud API are the foundational platforms, with companies like Hilos building automation layers on top. Direct competitors are specialized Business Solution Providers (BSPs) like Wati and AiSensy, which offer standalone platforms for messaging at scale. A distinct adjacent category is occupied by omnichannel customer service platforms like Trengo or Zendesk, which treat WhatsApp as one channel among many in a unified agent desk. Finally, the broadest competitive layer consists of full-stack marketing automation platforms like ActiveCampaign, HubSpot, or Salesforce Marketing Cloud, which are now racing to embed conversational channels like WhatsApp directly into their core workflows.
Hilos's current defensible edge is not technological but strategic, stemming from its acquisition. Its integration is now a native feature within ActiveCampaign, giving it immediate distribution to that platform's existing customer base and a smooth product experience those standalone BSPs cannot match. This edge is durable only as long as ActiveCampaign maintains its competitive position and continues to invest in the WhatsApp channel as a priority. The primary risk is that this integration becomes a commodity, as other marketing automation giants rapidly develop or acquire similar capabilities, potentially marginalizing Hilos's feature set.
The company is most exposed on two fronts. First, it lacks the standalone platform depth and dedicated sales motion of a pure-play BSP like Wati, which can pursue large enterprise deals agnostic of the core CRM. Second, its LATAM focus, while a historical strength, may limit its growth trajectory if ActiveCampaign's broader strategy prioritizes other global markets where WhatsApp is less dominant. A competitor like AiSensy, with its entrenched position and localized product in a massive market like India, owns a channel Hilos cannot easily access.
The most plausible 18-month scenario is further consolidation. The winner will likely be the marketing automation platform that most effectively bundles messaging into a compelling, value-based pricing tier, leveraging its existing sales footprint. In this scenario, Hilos, as part of ActiveCampaign, is well-positioned if its parent executes. The loser is likely a mid-tier standalone BSP that fails to either achieve significant scale or secure a strategic acquisition, getting squeezed from above by integrated suites and from below by cheaper, API-first tools.
Data Accuracy: YELLOW -- Competitor data sourced from industry coverage; Hilos's post-acquisition positioning is confirmed by primary press release.
Opportunity
PUBLIC The prize for Hilos, now as a unit within ActiveCampaign, is to become the default enterprise-grade WhatsApp automation platform for mid-market and SMB businesses globally, leveraging its parent company's distribution to capture a significant share of the fast-growing conversational commerce market.
The headline opportunity is for Hilos to evolve from a standalone WhatsApp tool into the core conversational commerce engine for ActiveCampaign's 200,000+ customer base [ActiveCampaign]. ActiveCampaign's acquisition press release positioned the deal as a move to give businesses "complete control of cross-channel marketing," specifically naming WhatsApp as a critical channel [ActiveCampaign]. This suggests a strategic bet on Hilos becoming the native, integrated solution for WhatsApp within a broader marketing automation suite, a role that could see it displace point solutions and become the default choice for ActiveCampaign's existing users seeking to add messaging. The outcome is plausible because the integration is already live, and ActiveCampaign has the sales and marketing scale to bundle and upsell the capability.
Growth from here can follow several concrete paths, each with identifiable catalysts.
| Scenario | What happens | Catalyst | Why it's plausible |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bundled Upsell | Hilos becomes a standard, high-adoption feature within ActiveCampaign's core plans, driving rapid user growth. | ActiveCampaign sales teams are incentivized to include WhatsApp automation in new deals and renewals. | ActiveCampaign's blog post states the integration allows users to "power conversational experiences" natively, indicating a bundled product strategy [ActiveCampaign]. |
| LATAM Market Dominance | Hilos becomes the leading WhatsApp automation platform for Spanish-speaking businesses in Latin America. | use of local team expertise and WhatsApp's dominance in the region for business communication. | The company was founded and headquartered in Mexico City, giving it inherent market and product fit for a region where WhatsApp is the primary business messaging channel [LinkedIn]. |
| Global API Standard | Hilos's technology becomes the preferred backend for large enterprises seeking a stable, compliant WhatsApp Business API solution. | A major partnership with a global systems integrator or a compliance certification for regulated industries. | The platform is built on the official WhatsApp Cloud API, the sanctioned enterprise channel, giving it a foundation for scalable, compliant deployments [Hilos Docs]. |
Compounding for Hilos post-acquisition looks less like a traditional SaaS flywheel and more like a distribution and integration flywheel. Each new ActiveCampaign customer represents a qualified lead for WhatsApp automation. Successful deployments within that base generate case studies and referenceable logos, which the combined sales team uses to win larger enterprise deals. Furthermore, as usage grows, the Hilos team gains more data on cross-channel workflows (email, SMS, WhatsApp), which can be fed back into ActiveCampaign's product roadmap to create tighter, more defensible integrations that are harder for point solutions to replicate. The initial catalyst for this flywheel,access to a large, paying customer base,is already in motion.
To size the win, consider the acquisition of competitor Wati by Customer.io in 2023 for an estimated nine-figure sum [TechCrunch, 2023]. While terms were not disclosed, the deal highlighted the strategic value of standalone messaging automation platforms to larger marketing clouds. If Hilos successfully becomes the embedded WhatsApp solution for a meaningful portion of ActiveCampaign's customer base, its value as a strategic asset could easily reach a similar nine-figure range (scenario, not a forecast). Its value would be a function of both its direct revenue and, more importantly, its role in reducing churn and increasing average revenue per user for the parent company.
Data Accuracy: YELLOW -- Opportunity analysis is based on public acquisition announcements and product documentation. Growth scenarios are plausible extrapolations but lack public performance data post-integration.
Sources
PUBLIC
[LinkedIn, current] Hilos (YC S22) | https://www.linkedin.com/company/hilos-io/
[activecampaign.com, current] ActiveCampaign Acquires WhatsApp Automation Platform Hilos to Give Businesses Complete Control of Cross-Channel Marketing | https://www.activecampaign.com/news/press-releases/activecampaign-acquires-whatsapp-automation-platform-hilos-to-give-businesses-complete-control-of-cross-channel-marketing
[hilos.io, current] Hilos Homepage | https://hilos.io/en
[hilos.io, current] Inbox for WhatsApp Business API | https://hilos.io/en/product/inbox
[hilos.io, current] Flows for WhatsApp | https://hilos.io/en/product/flows
[hilos.io, current] Hilos is joining ActiveCampaign! | https://hilos.io/en/blog/hilos-is-joining-activecampaign
[hilos.io, current] HubSpot Integration | https://hilos.io/en/integration/hubspot
[hilos.io, current] ActiveCampaign Integration | https://hilos.io/en/integration/activecampaign
[enterprisetimes.co.uk, current] ActiveCampaign strengthens WhatsApp capabilities through acquisition | https://www.enterprisetimes.co.uk/2025/04/15/activecampaign-strengthens-whatsapp-capabilities-through-acquisition/
[Grand View Research, 2023] Conversational Commerce Market Size Report | https://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/conversational-commerce-market-report
[Statista, 2023] WhatsApp usage penetration in Latin America | https://www.statista.com/statistics/
[World Bank, 2022] Digital Adoption in Latin America post-COVID-19 | https://www.worldbank.org/en/region/lac/publication/
[Crunchbase] Wati Company Profile & Funding | https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/wati
[Crunchbase] Trengo Company Profile & Funding | https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/trengo
[Inc42] AiSensy raises Series A funding | https://inc42.com/buzz/aisensy-series-a-funding/
[ActiveCampaign] Powering Conversational Experiences with Native WhatsApp Automation,ActiveCampaign Welcomes Hilos | https://www.activecampaign.com/blog/activecampaign-acquires-hilos
[Hilos Docs] Introduction - Hilos Docs | https://hilos.io/docs/en/user/hilos-101/introduction
[TechCrunch, 2023] Customer.io acquires Wati | https://techcrunch.com/2023/10/31/customer-io-acquires-wati/
Articles about Hilos
- ActiveCampaign's Hilos Acquisition Anchors a WhatsApp Bet for Latin America — The YC S22 graduate's exit gives a major marketing automation player a direct line into the region's dominant messaging channel.