AI workflow automation company Relay will cease operations, with founder and CEO Jacob Bank and some employees, including executives, joining the Google Chrome team.

Relay's free accounts were disabled on August 15 at 23:59 (Pacific Time), and related accounts and data have been permanently deleted; paid customers can continue to use their accounts for free until September 14 at 23:59, after which accounts and associated data will also be permanently deleted.

Relay has closed the registration for new users and the upgrade path for free accounts to paid accounts; existing paid subscriptions were canceled on July 16, and users will not be charged during the remaining window period.

Users must export their data and workflows within the shutdown window. Relay stated that workflows will continue to run during this period and will provide technical support for migration; after the shutdown, automation, data tables, and execution records within the product will not be retained.

Jacob Bank will return to Google as Vice President of Google Chrome Products, overseeing the Chrome product and developer relations team. He previously worked at Google for over six years and was responsible for Workspace product teams such as Gmail and Google Calendar.

From a market perspective, Relay's exit as an independent product requires its users to migrate workflows, prompts, data tables, and automation environments, with demand shifting to platforms like Zapier, Make, and n8n that are still operational. Google, by absorbing the founder and some core talent, gains experience in AI workflow products and developer operations, but has not announced the acquisition of Relay's products, user data, or intellectual property.

Relay was founded in 2021, positioned as a "new Zapier" in the automation market, and received support from investors such as Andreessen Horowitz, Khosla Ventures, BoxGroup, Neo, and Entropia Capital, raising approximately $8.1 million in total.

Source: Public Information