Three childhood friends - Or Shreiber, Tamir Or and Inbal Katz - have sold their Israeli startup, Dondy, to British technology holding company Circeus (formerly Shop Circle) in a deal estimated to be worth several million dollars.
The story is remarkable not only because of the acquisition, but because of how the company got there. Founded less than two years ago, Dondy was built without raising a single dollar from venture capital investors and with a team of just seven employees. Today, the platform serves more than 70,000 businesses across 140 countries, facilitates over $100 million in annual merchant orders, and handles more than one million customer conversations each year. The company is also ranked first in Shopify's App Store in both the WhatsApp and WhatsApp Marketing categories.
(Photo: Avital Shriver)
Dondy develops AI agents that automate marketing, sales and customer support across WhatsApp, helping online merchants manage customer interactions throughout the entire customer journey.
The idea behind Dondy emerged from failure. Before launching the company, the three founders attempted to build an e-commerce business of their own. Although the venture never gained traction, it exposed a much larger problem facing online merchants: attracting customers is only part of the challenge; converting them into buyers and maintaining long-term engagement is far more difficult.
That experience led the founders to focus on WhatsApp at a time when most online retailers still relied primarily on email and SMS. Their vision was to transform the messaging platform from a customer support channel into a complete commerce platform, enabling businesses to recover abandoned carts, answer customer inquiries, send shipping updates, launch personalized marketing campaigns and provide customer service through AI-powered conversations.
According to the company, its AI agents independently resolve approximately 70% of customer conversations without human intervention, while leveraging each customer's purchase history and behavior to deliver personalized responses in real time.
The acquisition is Circeus' first in Israel. Headquartered in London, the company describes itself as an AI-native technology holding company focused on acquiring business-critical software and integrating it into a shared AI infrastructure. Circeus serves more than 250,000 businesses worldwide and has completed 18 acquisitions over the past four years. Earlier this year, it rebranded from Shop Circle to Circeus as part of a broader strategy centered on AI-powered enterprise software.
Following the acquisition, Dondy will continue operating from Israel, with its founders remaining in leadership roles. The company plans to expand its AI platform beyond e-commerce into larger enterprise organizations, where it aims to automate customer-facing operations across multiple communication channels.