As an AI engineer at Meta, Boris Valkov helped construct PyTorch, one of many world’s largest machine studying libraries.
Throughout his time there, Valkov realized that synthetic intelligence “was about to unlock capabilities…in the application layer in the software stack.”
He left Meta in late 2021 to start out Lace AI, a startup that has developed AI-driven customer support software program for residence service corporations.
The trail to entrepreneurship began when Valkov was a boy, working within the household grocery retailer enterprise. It taught him the ability of phone customer support. As an grownup, he started to search for methods to mix his curiosity in AI and customer support. The concept for Lace was born.
Taking his years of software program engineering expertise at VMware and Meta, Valkov teamed up with Stan Stoyanov and aimed to marry AI with customer support to assist companies generate extra income.
The pair talked to greater than 100 corporations in numerous industries and verticals and found that within the residence providers vertical, many gross sales start with a name made to a name heart. House providers embody corporations resembling HVAC, plumbing, and roofing, amongst others.
The premise behind Lace is that if a buyer calls in to one in all these companies, it may possibly both convert right into a sale — or not. The corporate claims its software program might help enhance the possibilities of name conversions.
Particularly, Lace’s income intelligence software program makes use of AI expertise to research all of the calls coming into these companies to detect misplaced income alternatives. It claims that it’s extra complete than different comparable choices in that it displays 100% of the calls moderately than a portion of them. It analyzes every interplay “to ensure that no potential lead or opportunity is missed,” in keeping with Valkov.
The Mountain View-based firm works with over 100 companies, resembling A1 Storage Door Service, Sage House, Eco Plumbers, Matrix, and Lee’s Air. Valkov declined to disclose exhausting income figures, saying solely that Lace noticed 1,000% annual recurring income (ARR) development in 2024. (Nevertheless, it solely began promoting to clients on the finish of 2023.) The corporate operates a SaaS (software-as-a-service) enterprise mannequin, charging a month-to-month price per agent or buyer help consultant.
Even only a 1% enhance in bookings could possibly be materials for a house providers or a house reworking firm. For instance, an organization with $300 million in income experiencing a 1% enhance would see its income enhance by $3 million. Some companies that use Lace see double-digit income development, Valkov mentioned.
And at this time, Lace is asserting a complete of $19 million in funding since its early 2022 inception, the corporate tells TechCrunch completely. The overall raised features a beforehand unannounced $5 million pre-seed spherical led by Canvas Ventures and, extra just lately, a $14 million seed increase led by Bek Ventures. Different backers embody Horizon VC, Launchub, and Snowflake’s co-founder Marcin Zukowski, Vivino’s Heini Zachariassen, and different founders. Valkov declined to disclose valuation, saying solely that the seed financing was an “up” spherical.
Mehmet Atici, managing associate at Bek Ventures, mentioned he was drawn to put money into Lace partially due to its skilled group.
“There’s a growing trend of applying AI to make a real impact in sectors historically underserved by tech, and this team has a keen understanding of how to do just that — accurately identifying and addressing the needs of these often overlooked segments represents an enormous opportunity,” he instructed TechCrunch.
Presently, Lace has 20 staff. It plans to triple the scale of the corporate with its new funding.
