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Alloy Automation

Alloy Automation is a software integration business founded by Sara DuSara DuSara Du is a software entrepreneur, co-founder of Alloy Automation and founder of Ando (team messaging). She attended Harvard before becoming a Thiel Fellow and works on integrations, product design and collaboration between people and AI agents.Open the full entry and Gregg Mojica in 2019. It expanded from ecommerce automation into embedded integrations, unified APIs and AI agent connectivity; Mojica subsequently described a pivot to Kinter.

Contents10 sections
Key facts

Beginning as a side project

YC and ecommerce automation

The company joined Y Combinator’s Winter 2020 batch and focused on ecommerce during the pandemic. Its product connected merchant applications to reduce repetitive work across orders, marketing and operations.⁠[2]

$20 million Series A

On February 22, 2022, the company announced a $20 million Series A led by Andreessen HorowitzAndreessen HorowitzAndreessen Horowitz (a16z) is a venture capital firm founded in 2009 by Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz. It invests from the seed stage through the growth stage and provides operational support to its portfolio companies.Open the full entry, with participation from FirstMark Capital, Hawke Ventures and others, taking cumulative funding to $27 million. a16z partner David Ulevitch joined the board.⁠[3]

Early product: Visual workflows and integrations

The early platform combined a visual workflow engine, connectors and automation recipes to coordinate inventory, orders and customer data. Its 2022 announcement named users including Burberry, Brooklinen and Bokksu; these describe the product and customer base at that time.⁠[3]

Expansion beyond commerce

Sara Du explained that customer demand for ERP, accounting and financial integrations encouraged a broader positioning. General integration was the original ambition, with commerce serving as the initial market; expansion required changes to the website and product marketing.⁠[4]

Unified API launch

Unified API mapped fields from similar applications into common data models spanning commerce, ERP, accounting and customer engagement. The company positioned it alongside Flow and Embedded: unified endpoints served basic data access, while Embedded handled more complex workflows requiring user configuration.⁠[5]

Connectivity for AI agents

In From Clicks to Commands, the company introduced a hosted MCP Registry alongside Embedded iPaaS and Connectivity API. It emphasized business-application connectivity, authentication, logging and multitenant management, while describing more automated multistep execution as a direction for development.⁠[6]

Subsequent development: Gregg Mojica and Kinter

In Kinter’s Y Combinator launch post, Gregg Mojica recalled building Alloy and explicitly described the team’s subsequent pivot to accounting-focused Kinter. He characterized Alloy’s integration capabilities as a prerequisite for the new product. Sara Du separately founded Ando (team messaging)Ando (team messaging)Ando is a team messaging platform founded by Sara Du that brings people and AI agents into a shared workspace. Built around channels and messages, it emphasizes agent context, access boundaries and collaboration across tools. It launched publicly in September 2026.Open the full entry, a distinct subsequent venture.⁠[7][8]

Organizations, websites and public accounts

Sources

  1. About Us | Alloy Automation (opens in a new window)
  2. From Dropping Out to Raising $20M: Sara Du’s Journey with Alloy Automation (opens in a new window)
  3. Alloy Automation Raises $20 Million Series A, Led by Andreessen Horowitz, to Build the Operating System for Ecommerce (opens in a new window)
  4. Dancing with Vertical GTM Motions (opens in a new window)
  5. Alloy Automation launches its Unified API product for developers (opens in a new window)
  6. From Clicks to Commands: The Next Chapter of Alloy Automation (opens in a new window)
  7. Kinter: agents that run your accounting close proactively, not on demand (opens in a new window)
  8. Introducing Ando (opens in a new window)
  9. Alloy Automation | The Integration Infrastructure for the Age of AI (opens in a new window)