Adobe has bought Rilo, an Indian AI startup that builds tools for automated marketing work. The deal comes less than a year after Rilo launched, showing how fast big software firms are moving to grab AI talent and technology.
Rilo was started in September 2025 by two IIT Bombay graduates, Dhruv Jaglan and Georgi Boby. The startup built a platform that let users create workflows using plain language instead of code. People could simply describe a task, and AI agents would carry it out across different tools.
Rilo later shifted its focus to marketing and sales support. It built what the company called AI employees. These digital assistants handled jobs like researching competitors, finding prospects, distributing content, reaching out on social media, and reviewing sales calls. The approach caught on fast. Rilo crossed 10,000 users within just a few months of launch.
Adobe is pushing further into agentic AI, where software does not just create content but also completes multi-step tasks on its own. Rilo's technology is expected to strengthen automation inside Adobe's marketing and customer experience products, especially for large companies running complex campaigns.
The deal also shows a shift in how young AI startups are valued. Buyers now care as much about a strong engineering team as they do about the product itself.
Terms of the deal were not shared. Rilo had raised close to USD 1 million from investors such as Peak XV Partners, DeVC, and Day Zero Ventures. This marks Adobe's second acquisition of an Indian startup, after Rephrase.ai in 2023. Rilo will shut down as its team joins Adobe.
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