Let’s talk about Lace, a name that sounds delicate but hits like a heavyweight champ. This isn’t your typical AI story wrapped in empty jargon and unicorn dreams. No, this one’s rooted in something real: a kid answering phones at his family’s grocery store, learning firsthand that if you don’t pick up, you don’t get paid. Fast forward to 2025, and that same kid, Boris Valkov, is no longer just picking up the phone. He’s answering a $650 billion call from the home services industry, with Lace AI now analyzing every single one of those customer calls like it’s game 7, down by 2.
Boris isn’t just another ex-Meta AI engineer chasing the startup rush. He helped build PyTorch. Trained trillion-parameter models before most folks figured out what AI even meant. Then he bounced, partnered with Stanislav Stoyanov, another heavyweight in comms systems, and set up shop in Mountain View with an R&D engine running full speed out of Sofia, Bulgaria. Lace AI was born to listen, not just to some calls, but all of them. Every. Single. One. Because in a world where most revenue is hiding between the lines of “I’ll think about it” and “Let me check,” missing even one opportunity? That’s leaving money on the table.
And now? They just bagged $14 million in fresh seed cash, led by Bek Ventures with LAUNCHub Ventures, Horizon VCW, and angels who know how to pick winners, Marcin Zukowski from Snowflake, Heini Zachariassen of Vivino, and Payhawk’s Hristo Borisov. Add that to an unannounced $5 million pre-seed round from Canvas Ventures, and we’re looking at $19 million fueling the kind of AI that turns missed calls into booked business. No fluff, no extra marketing spend, just raw results. 1,000% ARR growth last year. 98% booking rates. One client? Saw their bookingrate jump 23% in a month. Another? Cut QA costs by 5.5x. That’s not hype, that’s precision.
Lace AI isn’t sampling. It’s not guessing. It’s dissecting every customer interaction, showing home service businesses, HVAC, plumbing, roofing, that they don’t need more leads. They need better outcomes from the calls they’re already getting. A1 Garage Door Service, Sage Homes, Eco Plumbers, Electricians, and HVAC Technicians, they’ve all tapped in. This isn’t just software. It’s a shift in how you see the phones ringing off the hook. Lace AI is about making every ring count.
So yeah, call it what you want, but I see a company that laced up early and is now sprinting past the noise. No gimmicks, just a relentless focus on making AI work where it actually matters. And if you’re still only listening to a sample of what your customers are saying? You’re already behind. Boris and Stan didn’t build Lace AI to play catch-up, they built it to lead.
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