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…within the utility layer within the software program stack.”
He left Meta in late 2021 to begin 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 facility 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 several industries and verticals and found that within the residence companies vertical, many gross sales start with a name made to a name middle. Residence companies embrace corporations corresponding to HVAC, plumbing, and roofing, amongst others.
The premise behind Lace is that if a buyer calls in to considered one of these companies, it will probably both convert right into a sale — or not. The corporate claims its software program might help enhance the probabilities of name conversions.
Particularly, Lace’s income intelligence software program makes use of AI expertise to investigate all of the calls coming into these companies to detect misplaced income alternatives. It claims that it’s extra complete than different related choices in that it displays 100% of the calls reasonably than a portion of them. It analyzes every interplay “to make sure that no potential lead or alternative is missed,” in accordance with Valkov.
The Mountain View-based firm works with over 100 companies, corresponding to A1 Storage Door Service, Sage Residence, 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. (Nonetheless, it solely began promoting to prospects on the finish of 2023.) The corporate operates a SaaS (software-as-a-service) enterprise mannequin, charging a month-to-month payment per agent or buyer assist consultant.
Even only a 1% enhance in bookings may very well be materials for a house companies 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 stated.
And right this moment, Lace is asserting a complete of $19 million in funding since its early 2022 inception, the corporate tells iinfoai solely. The full raised features a beforehand unannounced $5 million pre-seed spherical led by Canvas Ventures and, extra not too long ago, a $14 million seed elevate led by Bek Ventures. Different backers embrace 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 companion at Bek Ventures, stated he was drawn to spend money on Lace partially due to its skilled crew.
“There’s a rising development of making use of AI to make an actual impression in sectors traditionally underserved by tech, and this crew has a eager understanding of find out how to just do that — precisely figuring out and addressing the wants of those typically neglected segments represents an infinite alternative,” he instructed iinfoai.
Presently, Lace has 20 staff. It plans to triple the scale of the corporate with its new funding.
