Lace AI, a Mountain View-based startup with a significant R&D centre in Sofia, has raised $14 million in seed funding to accelerate the development of its AI-powered revenue intelligence platform for call centres. The investment round was led by Bek Ventures, with contributions from Horizon VC, LAUNCHub Ventures, and notable investors including Marcin Zukowski, co-founder of Snowflake, Heini Zachariassen, founder of Vivino, and Hristo Borisov, co-founder of Payhawk. This brings Lace AI’s total funding to $19 million, including a $5 million pre-seed round in 2022 led by Canvas Ventures.
With this fresh capital, Lace AI plans to expand its R&D operations in Sofia, push forward AI innovation, and triple its team to meet the growing demand, particularly within the home services industry. The company’s rapid growth and global investor support make it Bulgaria’s fastest-growing startup and a key player in the international tech landscape.
Lace AI’s Founders: A Team of Deeptech Experts
Before founding Lace AI in 2022, Boris Valkov, one of the co-founders, worked at Meta, contributing to PyTorch, one of the most widely used machine learning libraries globally. Along with Stan Stoyanov, a fellow software engineer from VMware, Valkov brought together his vast experience in large-scale machine learning and enterprise software to create a platform that scales conversational data analysis, rivaling global tech giants’ solutions.
Boris Valkov’s early exposure to customer service, growing up in his family’s grocery store, helped inspire Lace AI. He learned the importance of human connection through phone calls, which later influenced his vision to blend AI with service calls to help businesses recover lost revenue.
Unlike traditional call analytics tools that only review a small sample of customer calls, Lace AI uses advanced AI models to analyze every single service call a business receives. This full-coverage approach helps businesses identify qualification gaps, customer objections, and mishandled calls in real-time, enabling them to recover lost sales and boost revenue.
The platform specifically targets the $650 billion home services and remodelling industry, where a large percentage of revenue still comes through phone calls. Despite significant investments in digital marketing, the traditional method of handling calls remains a vital revenue driver. Lace AI’s technology is changing how these industries convert calls into profits, making it a game-changer for businesses previously overlooked by tech advancements.
The Sofia R&D Hub: A Key to Global Success
Lace AI’s R&D centre in Sofia has rapidly become one of the region’s largest AI hubs, employing highly skilled Bulgarian engineers. The company’s dual-location strategy—headquartered in Mountain View, with a strong presence in Sofia—enables it to tap into both US capital and customers while leveraging Bulgaria’s technical talent pool and lower operational costs. This blend of Silicon Valley ambition with Bulgaria’s engineering prowess is proving to be a powerful model for next-generation startups.
Lace AI has already demonstrated massive success in the market. Businesses using its platform have achieved booking rates as high as 98% and increased net sales by up to 35%—all without the need for additional marketing spend or new hires. One client, with 25 agents handling 18,000 calls per month, saw a 23% increase in qualified bookings and a 5.5-fold reduction in quality assurance costs within just one month.
In 2024, Lace AI saw its annual recurring revenue (ARR) grow by a staggering 1,000%, underlining its rapid adoption and strong product-market fit.
A SaaS Model for Easy Adoption
Operating on a monthly subscription model, Lace AI charges per agent or customer service representative. Despite launching commercially only at the end of 2023, it already serves over 100 companies, including notable clients like A1 Garage Door Service and Eco Plumbers.
Looking ahead, Lace AI plans to further enhance its platform with deeper CRM integrations, more real-time analytics, and coaching capabilities for customer service agents. These innovations are being driven by the company’s Sofia research centre, which continues to expand and position Lace AI as a leader in AI-driven revenue intelligence for home services.
Lace AI’s rapid rise is a testament to Bulgaria’s growing influence in the global tech ecosystem. By combining world-class Bulgarian engineering with Silicon Valley ambition, Lace AI is redefining how traditionally underserved industries unlock value from every customer call. With explosive growth, strong investor backing, and a bold innovation roadmap, Lace AI is well on its way to becoming a flagship example of Bulgarian tech success on the world stage.
