ActiveCampaign has acquired Mexico City-based Hilos in a deal set to transform the world of marketing automation. The move puts the fast-growing platform at the forefront of WhatsApp messaging for business, with over 2.4 billion users and 200 million active business accounts already on the app.
The acquisition gives ActiveCampaign’s 180,000 customers native WhatsApp automation, turning a casual chat tool into a powerful marketing engine. With no-code tools and real-time interaction data, brands can now craft hyper-personalised, one-on-one conversations at scale, all within the ActiveCampaign platform.
Jason Vandeboom, founder and CEO of ActiveCampaign, said: “By acquiring Hilos, we’re expanding our platform to help businesses build conversational experiences on one of the world’s most popular messaging platforms. This acquisition reinforces our commitment to providing powerful, AI-driven marketing automation across multiple channels to make every marketing experience more relevant and effective.”
Through the Hilos integration, businesses will be able to build automated chat experiences from scratch using drag-and-drop tools with no coding required. A unified inbox captures all interactions across channels, giving teams a clearer picture of the customer journey.
Real-time insights from user behaviour will help fine-tune messaging strategies, while automation will take over repetitive tasks, allowing teams to focus on the conversations that drive real business outcomes.
While many companies are still juggling siloed tools and clunky workflows, ActiveCampaign is aiming to bring everything under one roof. And if this deal lives up to the hype, WhatsApp could shift from being just another messaging app to a central hub for building stronger customer relationships.