Jolly is acquiring Rye, an a16z-backed agentic commerce company whose software lets AI agents buy products directly from merchants on a shopper’s behalf, for an undisclosed price. Jolly issues incentive points to frontline workers when an employer’s performance data hits a preset trigger, and the company says it has reached nearly 200,000 workers at more than 100 employers. Rye was co-founded by Twitch’s Justin Kan and Arjun Bhargava, an early Reddit engineer who is now Rye’s CEO. Once the deal closes, Rye will run the redemption side, so a worker who earns points automatically can spend them through agentic checkout at online merchants.
