BOSTON, May 5, 2026, 18:08 ET
Klaviyo shares slipped in after-hours trading Tuesday. The marketing software firm topped Wall Street’s first-quarter expectations and boosted its 2026 guidance, but the exit of CFO Amanda Whalen weighed on sentiment. For the quarter ended March 31, revenue climbed 28% to $358.0 million, and Klaviyo also raised its full-year forecast.
The report drops at a tricky moment for software names. Klaviyo is working to prove it can hold growth north of 20%, make headway with bigger clients, and actually convert its AI features into sales. Earlier, some investors had flagged its cooling growth and how it stacks up on valuation against other CRM software players. Customer relationship management, or CRM, covers tools for handling customer data, marketing, and support.
This is the logic behind the “beat and raise.” Klaviyo wants to be seen less as a simple email-and-text platform and more as a business-to-consumer CRM outfit built around AI agents—software capable of parsing data or executing marketing moves with less human input—for both campaigns and customer chats. Klaviyo reported a customer base topping 196,000. Among those, the cohort bringing in over $50,000 in annual recurring revenue jumped 38%, now at 4,175. Business Wire
Klaviyo reported revenue of $358.01 million and EPS of 22 cents, topping MarketBeat’s consensus estimates of $348.57 million in revenue and 19 cents EPS. Shares ended the regular session 3.9% higher at $23.33. But in after-hours action tracked by MarketBeat, the stock dropped to $18.88 at 6:06 p.m. ET, a 19.1% decline from the close.
“Q1 reflected strong momentum across our business,” co-founder and co-CEO Andrew Bialecki said. Whalen noted that AI is reshaping “the way we work,” with revenue per employee topping $600,000—up over 25% from last year. Quartr
Non-GAAP operating income climbed to $58.6 million, giving Klaviyo a 16% non-GAAP operating margin after stripping out costs like stock-based compensation. For GAAP net income, the company posted $9.0 million, or 3 cents per diluted share, swinging from a $14.1 million net loss in the same period last year, according to the filing.
Klaviyo nudged its 2026 revenue outlook a bit higher—new range, $1.514 billion to $1.522 billion, compared with February’s $1.501 billion to $1.509 billion. That’s a $13 million bump at the midpoint. The company also tightened its forecast for full-year non-GAAP operating income to between $222 million and $228 million, from the prior $218 million to $224 million.
The CFO shuffle gave Klaviyo a fresh headline. According to the Form 8-K, Whalen informed the company on May 1 of her plan to step down, but she’ll stay on as CFO until Aug. 21 before switching to an advisory post through Nov. 16. The document emphasized that her exit wasn’t sparked by any dispute with Klaviyo or issues tied to financials, accounting, controls, or business operations.
Whalen described the transition as “orderly.” “Klaviyo is the strongest it has ever been,” she said. Bialecki, for his part, called Whalen “an exceptional partner” and credited her with scaling the company following its IPO. Klaviyo said a formal replacement search is underway. Quartr
Product expansion is still front and center. Klaviyo rolled out Composer in private preview, bulked up Customer Agent with custom skills and additional channels, and shored up integrations, touching ChatGPT, Claude, Canva, and Google. On the call, Bialecki described the plan for Composer’s pricing and packaging as “very clear.” MarketBeat
That Canva connection is drawing investor interest. Simply Wall St highlighted Klaviyo’s deeper Canva integration, pointing out that it allows marketers to build campaigns in Canva, then handle segmentation, automation, and execution within Klaviyo. They also noted that over 20% of Klaviyo customers had linked up with Canva.
Competition remains fierce. Investors often stack Klaviyo up against bigger CRM and marketing software players like Salesforce and Adobe, but Klaviyo is zeroing in: targeting consumer brands, leveraging first-party data, and bundling automated messaging together. On the earnings call, co-CEO Chano Fernández flagged enterprise expansion as a potential “game changer” for the business, though he cautioned it won’t materialize in just a quarter or two. Simply Wall St
Still, there are plenty of ways the story could unravel. Klaviyo has already called out risks tied to holding onto growth, reliance on third-party integrations, customer churn and expansion, its AI strategy, and the challenges of scaling overseas—not to mention broader macro headwinds. Management also noted higher carrier charges for text messages. For now, the company isn’t passing those increases on to clients, and that’s factored into its second-half guidance.
This quarter hands bulls more ammunition than they had just a week ago: margins improved, revenue guidance edged higher, a handful of big accounts landed, and the AI road map looks less murky. Still, the coming months have an unresolved issue — who steps into the finance role, and if these new AI offerings actually turn into lasting revenue, not just another add-on.
