AI-driven workflow automation startup Relay is shutting down its independent product operations, with founder and chief executive officer Jacob Bank and key engineering staff joining Google's Chrome division to develop browser-native AI agent capabilities.
Relay, founded in July 2021 to compete with legacy workflow platforms like Zapier through generative AI integrations, raised $8.1 million across two venture funding rounds. The company phased out free tier access on August 15, 2026, and will officially terminate service for enterprise and paid customers on September 14, 2026.
Strategic Talent Re-Acquisition
The move marks a return to Google for Bank, who previously spent over six years at the technology company after Google acquired his calendar and scheduling startup, Timeful, in 2015. Bank later served as Director of Product Management for Google's consumer shopping products before departing in 2021 to establish Relay.
At Google, Bank takes on the role of Vice President of Product for Google Chrome, where he will oversee both core product development and developer relations teams. Rather than a formal corporate acquisition of Relay's codebase or platform assets, the transition operates as a targeted talent onboarding to lead Chrome's emerging agentic features.
Browser-Native Agent Integration
The transition comes as major technology vendors race to embed multimodal models and autonomous task execution directly into web clients. Google has increasingly positioned Gemini within Chrome, testing features ranging from automated form filling and cross-tab summarization to complex multi-step web navigation.
Integrating an experienced workflow orchestration team signals Google's intent to evolve Chrome from a passive rendering engine into an active environment where LLM agents can plan, authenticate, and execute actions across disparate web services on behalf of users.
