As an AI engineer in Meta, Boris Valkov helped build Pytorch, one of the world’s largest machine learning libraries.
While there, Barkov realized that artificial intelligence was “trying to unlock capabilities” in the application layer of the software stack.
He left Meta in late 2021 and began racing AI. Race AI is a startup that developed AI-driven customer service software for home service companies.
The path to entrepreneurship began when Barkov was a boy who worked in the family’s grocery business. It taught him the power of phone customer service. As an adult, he began looking for ways to combine AI with customer service interests. The idea of lace was born.
With years of software engineering experience at VMware and Meta, Valkov worked with Stan Stoyanov to marry AI to help companies generate additional revenue.
The pair spoke to over 100 companies in a variety of industries and industries, and found that at Home Services, many sales start with calls to call centers. Home Services include businesses such as HVAC, plumbing, roofing and more.
The premise behind Lace is whether customers can make a call to one of these businesses and convert it into sales. The company claims that its software will help improve call conversion possibilities.
Specifically, LACE’s Revenue Intelligence Software uses AI technology to analyze every call that comes to these businesses to detect lost revenue opportunities. It claims to be more comprehensive than other similar offerings. That’s because they’re monitoring 100% of the call, not a part of them. According to Valkov, we analyze each interaction “to ensure that potential leads and opportunities are not overlooked.”
Mountain View-based companies work with over 100 companies including A1 Garage Door Services, Sage Home, Eco Plumber, Matrix and Lee Air. Barkov refused to reveal his hard revenue figures, stating that he saw an annual repeat revenue (ARR) growth of 1,000% in 2024 (but he began selling to customers at the end of 2023).
Even if bookings increase by 1%, it’s still important for home services and home renovation companies. For example, a company with a 1% increase in revenue of $300 million would have an increase in revenue of $3 million. Some companies using races are seeing double-digit revenue growth, Valkov says.
And today, the company tells TechCrunch exclusively that the race has announced a total of $19 million since its launch in early 2022. The total includes a previously unannounced $5 million seed round led by Canvas Ventures, and more recently $14 million seeds led by Bek Ventures. Other supporters include Horizon VC, Launchub, Snowflake co-founder Marcin Zukowski, Vivino’s Heini Zacharissen, and other founders. Barkov refused to reveal the assessment, saying only that the seeds funding was a “up” round.
Bek Ventures Managing Partner Mehmet Attici said he was drawn to investing in races for his experienced team.
“There is a growing trend to apply AI to real impact on sectors that have historically been unserved by Tech, and this team has a keen understanding of how to do that.
Currently, the race has 20 employees. The company is planning to triple the size of the company with new funds.
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