Broccoli AI raises $30 million to automate calls and office work for contractors

Broccoli AI calls its software a teammate, not a replacement, while saying it performs work equivalent to roughly 30% of a contractor’s office staff. Now it has raised a $30 million Series B led by Khosla Ventures, Fortune reported October 28, backing its push to automate calls and office work for home-service businesses.

Two rounds, nine months apart

The financing follows a $22 million Series A nine months earlier, bringing the two rounds to $52 million. Khosla led both, with Y Combinator and Operator Partners also participating. The Series A had not previously been announced, co-founder and CEO AJ Jain told Fortune.

Fortune put Broccoli’s valuation at $300 million after the investment, citing a person familiar with the matter. Broccoli declined to comment on that figure. The company says the new money will fund engineering and sales hires and speed product development.

Jain said revenue had tripled since the Series A. Headcount grew from 15 a year ago to more than 150. Broccoli says more than 1,500 businesses use its service, including Ace Hardware Home Services, Mr. Electric and Any Hour Group.

The plumbing shop that shaped the software

The product took shape through a customer relationship that became part of Broccoli’s management. In spring 2024, founders Jain and Aditya Ketkar visited about 140 contractors’ shops across Northern California. Their earlier energy startup had struggled to scale; this time, they wanted an owner to build alongside.

That June, they met Marcelle Flowers at Armstrong Plumbing in Sacramento. She was opposed to AI because she feared it would take jobs. But their demonstration addressed an immediate gap: Flowers had lost the employee who made appointment-reminder calls and had not replaced her.

Within two days, Flowers recalled, the founders had loaded the reminder system with her scripts. Her bigger frustration was an answering service costing $5,000 a month that booked jobs into her software only 33% of the time. She asked whether they could adapt their outbound-call tool to answer incoming calls. They had that working in 10 days, she said.

For about three months, Jain said, the founders wrote code from her shop while she explained the contracting business. Flowers became Broccoli’s first customer, then an adviser and its first chief operating officer. Her word of mouth helped take the company from one customer to 10, ending the founders’ door-knocking campaign.

They knew nothing about a plunger and a toilet.

Marcelle Flowers, describing the founders to Fortune

Booking jobs, handing off emergencies

Broccoli now sells AI agents—software that carries out tasks—to plumbing, heating and cooling, and electrical companies. They answer inbound calls, book jobs directly in contractors’ existing scheduling software, follow up on estimates and renew service memberships. Over the past seven months, the company has also added roofing, pool care, garage doors, home improvement and exteriors.

Owners wanted calls answered after the office emptied at 5 p.m., along with help closing the books and chasing technicians’ estimates, Jain said. He acknowledged that the AI is good at perhaps 80% of tasks, with the remaining 20% requiring human judgment. Emergencies, such as a flooding basement or fire, go to people in the contractor’s office.

Jain’s longer-term ambition is a “business in a box” that lets a young technician start a company without first hiring a receptionist and bookkeeper. Development still involves direct contact with operators: he said at least 30% of Broccoli’s engineers work on-site with customers, including on products the company has not yet released.