Who Really Owns Helium 10? A Look at the Founders & Acquisition

Manny Coats and Guillermo Puyol founded Helium 10 in 2015, but neither owns it today — the company is now a subsidiary of Assembly, operates alongside Pacvue, and is run by CEO Bojan Gajic. That shift happened through a series of strategic moves rather than one buyout, and it explains a lot about the software you use now, so grab a free Helium 10 trial here if you want to judge the post-acquisition platform yourself.

The short corporate version is that Pacvue offers two symbiotic suites — Pacvue and Helium 10 — that empower businesses at any stage of their journey to accelerate their commerce goals. The full story goes much deeper than that.

Below we break down exactly who owns what, when the major acquisitions happened, and how all of it affects the Helium 10 features you rely on today.

The Short Answer: Founder vs. Current Owner

Manny Coats and Guillermo Puyol founded Helium 10, both having been actively engaged in e-commerce communities online for years. Today’s ownership structure is completely different:

• Founders: Manny Coats and Guillermo Puyol, late 2015
• Parent company: Assembly
• Sister platform: Pacvue
• Current CEO: Bojan Gajic

Helium 10 is now a subsidiary of Assembly, which serves as the parent company overseeing multiple e-commerce brands. Assembly is focused broadly on e-commerce end to end, horizontally and vertically, with Helium 10 focused primarily on small and medium businesses.

Manny Coats remains involved with the company and still hosts podcasts, but he is no longer the owner in the traditional sense. The transition happened gradually through strategic acquisitions rather than a single buyout event.

The Founders: The Manny Coats Era

In late 2015, Manny Coats and Guillermo Puyol set out to explore the e-commerce boom happening on Amazon. The original plan was to start an e-commerce company selling private label products and document the journey on a podcast.

The AM/PM Podcast launched with Manny as host, and as time passed, the show grew in popularity along with Manny’s understanding of the Amazon marketplace. What started as a documentation project became something much bigger.

Using e-commerce communities as their testing ground, they began developing software that addressed sellers’ numerous and ever-evolving needs, starting with an innovative listing optimization tool that became Helium 10.

Manny’s background as an active Amazon seller gave him insight into real problems that needed solving. As he noted in his income reports, he generated $1.3 million in sales on Amazon during his first 12 months from December 2015 through December 2016 — he understood the seller experience firsthand.

The Helium 10 pricing structure and tool development philosophy came directly from that seller-first mentality. The same thinking produced the company’s training arm: see Helium 10 Academy for how those programs evolved out of the founders’ vision.

The Acquisition: Who Bought Helium 10?

The ownership changes didn’t happen overnight. Helium 10 went through several strategic transitions that eventually led to its current structure under Assembly and its partnership with Pacvue.

The Role of Assembly

Assembly, as the parent company, received a valuation of a billion dollars — significant growth since Helium 10’s early days, when it had just five employees. This wasn’t only about acquiring Helium 10; it was about building a comprehensive e-commerce ecosystem.

Assembly includes other brands focused on Shopify and influencer marketing, with the goal of letting e-commerce entrepreneurs succeed across multiple platforms. Think of it as a holding company built specifically for e-commerce tools and services.

That structure lets Helium 10 keep its focus on Amazon sellers while benefiting from shared resources and expertise across the broader e-commerce landscape.

The Pacvue Acquisition

The recently announced acquisition of Pacvue as part of Assembly shows how the company augments its services. Pacvue is an advertising platform aimed primarily at enterprises and Fortune 500 companies.

Melissa Burdick, co-founder of Pacvue, started the company in 2017 after getting API access from Amazon. Pacvue approaches $20 billion in ad spend managed and works with over 70,000 brands and agencies across 95+ retailers worldwide, including Amazon, Walmart, Target and Instacart.

The acquisition means Helium 10 users now have access to enterprise-level advertising technology. Expertise and technology developed for the most successful businesses in the world is being shared with Helium 10 customers, and vice versa — it is one of the changes Helium 10 users ask about most.

The result is Helium 10 Ads powered by Pacvue, which leverages the collected intelligence of both platforms to unlock smarter advertising at scale. That wouldn’t have been possible under the original ownership structure.

Who Is the Current CEO of Helium 10?

Bojan Gajic currently serves as CEO of Helium 10. His path to the top spot is unusual: he wasn’t brought in from outside, he grew with the company.

Bojan moved from Chief Technology Officer to Chief Operating Officer and then to CEO, having helped shape Helium 10 “from the seed to the tree that it is today”. He is a mathematician by education and has been with the company for years.

That internal promotion says the company values continuity and deep product knowledge over external hires. Bojan and Manny also have a long working relationship that predates Helium 10, having worked together on several projects and through several phases of business and software development.

Under Bojan’s leadership, over 2 million Helium 10 users rely on the company’s precision products to build and scale thriving e-commerce businesses. The focus remains on what he calls “customer obsession” — one of the Amazon leadership principles he follows.

How Ownership Affects Helium 10’s Tools

You might wonder whether any of this reaches the tools you actually use. The short answer: yes, mostly in positive ways.

The Assembly structure provides more resources for development. The expanded team brought in new talent that delivered impressive results in improving data accuracy and model performance, which translates directly into better sales estimates and keyword data in your daily workflow.

The Pacvue integration brings enterprise-level advertising capabilities to regular sellers. AI Advertising capabilities that automatically manage campaigns and optimize performance are now available in Helium 10’s most popular plan at no additional cost for Platinum customers. The Helium 10 Platinum vs Diamond comparison now includes those enhanced advertising features, which makes the ownership changes tangible for everyday users.

Some things haven’t changed. The core focus is still customer obsession and customer-first thinking, which is what allows for the product-market fit you can’t reach without understanding the markets.

Development also continues at a rapid pace. The company constantly ships updates and launches new tools, with development teams working around the clock, and the expanded resources from Assembly are what enable that cycle. The Chrome extension remains one of the most popular tools — see Helium 10 Xray for how the ownership changes have sharpened product research.

Final Thoughts: Ownership Evolution Drives Innovation

Helium 10’s ownership story shows how successful software companies evolve. What started as two entrepreneurs solving their own Amazon selling problems is now part of a billion-dollar e-commerce ecosystem.

The Assembly structure and Pacvue integration aren’t only financial maneuvers — they are strategic moves that bring enterprise-level capabilities to everyday sellers. You get access to technology and expertise that would have been impossible under the original ownership model.

Manny Coats and Guillermo Puyol deserve credit for building the foundation. But today’s Helium 10 delivers more value than it ever did under their ownership: the seller-first mentality survived, and it is now backed by far more resources and much better technology.