Volca Secures $5.5M to Bring AI Automation to the Home Services Industry
Startup aims to transform manual workflows into revenue engines for contractors.

The home services sector is getting a serious tech upgrade. Volca, an AI-powered marketing platform purpose-built for contractors and service professionals, has raised $5.5 million in seed funding led by Pathlight Ventures, with support from MetaProp, GTMFund, Recall Capital, and angels from Stripe, Ramp, Figma, Plaid, and more.

The round positions Volca to tackle one of the most underserved—and high-potential—corners of the U.S. economy: the $526 billion and growing home maintenance and improvement market. Backed by AI, Volca is helping plumbers, HVAC techs, electricians, and other tradespeople finally automate their growth—starting with one of the most reliable business engines out there: referrals.

Turning Word-of-Mouth into a Workflow

Volca’s core product is a smart, SMS-based referral system that connects with CRMs like ServiceTitan, allowing contractors to run fully automated referral programs from start to finish. Using AI, Volca personalizes messages, tracks leads, matches jobs to existing systems, and even handles secure payouts for successful referrals—all via text.

That means no more manually chasing leads, updating spreadsheets, or managing clunky third-party apps. It’s referral marketing as a revenue loop, not just a side channel.

“Volca isn’t just streamlining operations — it’s building a heat-seeking missile revenue engine for home services,” said Mahdi Raza, Co-founder at Pathlight Ventures.

Millions in Revenue and Counting

The approach is already paying off. Volca claims to have built millions in referral pipeline for its customers, with some seeing $70,000+ in net new revenue per month driven purely by Volca-powered automations.

“Since we started using Volca four months ago, we’ve made over $160K in new sales through referral automations,” said Nathan Shafer of Shafer Heating and Cooling. “It’s been a game-changer.”

Built by Operators Who’ve Been There

Co-founders Brendan Kazanjian and Brandon (Don) Rabovsky are longtime friends who bring both tech and trade credibility to the table. Don’s deep referral marketing expertise met Brendan’s firsthand experience in the family construction business—a mix that gave rise to Volca’s founding vision: build smarter tools for a market that’s long been overlooked by Silicon Valley.

“The trades power our economy, but operators are buried under manual work,” said Kazanjian. “We want to give them back time, revenue, and peace of mind.”

The Bigger Vision: AI for Every Revenue Function

While referrals are Volca’s initial wedge, the platform is evolving into a full-stack AI growth engine for home services businesses. The roadmap includes:

• Intelligent lead generation

• AI-powered communications

• Post-sale automations like upsells, review requests, and retention tools

The long-term goal? Help service pros scale without burning out. Volca plans to expand its NYC-based team across engineering, product, and customer success.

“We’re not just building software — we’re rethinking how the next generation of contractors grow,” said Kazanjian.

Get in touch with our MarTech Experts.