Salesforce agrees to buy Braze for $5.66 billion to strengthen AI marketing

Salesforce has agreed to acquire customer-engagement platform Braze for approximately $5.66 billion in enterprise value. The October 20, 2026 agreement targets technology that turns live customer behavior into personalized messages across apps, websites and messaging services. Salesforce expects the deal to close in its fiscal 2028, with shareholder and regulatory approvals still required.

A cash offer for Braze shareholders

Under the definitive agreement, holders of Braze Class A common stock would receive $47.50 in cash per share. The announced enterprise value is approximately $5.66 billion. Salesforce has signed an agreement to buy the company; it has not completed the acquisition.

Salesforce’s stated rationale is to give marketers systems that can understand customers, make decisions and act as behavior changes. Patrick Stokes, its president of applications and marketing, described Braze’s appeal as the ability to turn live behavior into personalized engagement at scale, paired with Salesforce’s marketing software and customer data.

Braze brings an existing customer base to that proposal. It serves approximately 2,770 customers, according to the announcement, including Canva, Dairy Queen, Equinox, Instacart, Urban Outfitters and Venmo. Co-founder and CEO Bill Magnuson said the company would keep building under the Braze name and investing in its customer and partner community.

Salesforce’s platform will help us innovate faster and together we’ll help marketers around the world build deeper, more lasting relationships with their customers.

Bill Magnuson, CEO and co-founder of Braze

From browsing behavior to the next message

Braze’s underlying technology processes a continuous stream of customer activity. As people browse, buy or use products, it updates customer profiles and adjusts the sequence of interactions a brand sends them. It also takes in data from cloud data warehouses and other platforms to help coordinate those responses.

Those interactions span mobile apps, websites, email, SMS and WhatsApp. Within apps, Braze supports messages, personalized content feeds and live updates. Salesforce describes the platform as built for high-volume engagement with consumers, powering trillions of messages and customer-journey actions each year.

BrazeAI adds tools intended to optimize the content, offer, channel and timing of an interaction. The AI component is therefore not limited to writing marketing copy: it also helps marketers choose what to send, where to send it and when, according to the companies’ description.

Integration comes after the deal closes

After closing, Salesforce expects Braze to complement four parts of its architecture: Data 360, Customer 360, Agentforce and SIForce. The most specific proposed role is within Marketing Cloud, where Braze would strengthen personalization across channels and help brands reach hundreds of millions of people with experiences adjusted in real time.

Salesforce also wants to connect Braze’s AI decisions with its customer context and Agentforce, linking marketing with commerce, sales and service. Both companies say they support an approach that lets customers combine different data systems, tools and partners. Those are integration plans, not newly available Salesforce features.

The next formal steps include a Braze shareholder vote and required regulatory approvals. Braze intends to file proxy materials with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Salesforce says it anticipates no change to fiscal 2027 guidance; it has not issued fiscal 2028 guidance and is not updating its long-term targets.