Why we invested in Tradestack: empowers trades businesses to quote 20x faster and win more jobs

Trades businesses suffer from inefficiencies in quoting and administration

Trades businesses often spend up to 3.5 hours per lead on manual tasks such as surveying, scoping, and preparing quotes. With an average lead conversion rate of 50%, this inefficiency results in poor productivity, missed opportunities, and customer dissatisfaction. Consequently, businesses can lose up to £17,000 in annual earnings due to these time-consuming tasks. This inefficiency not only reduces profitability but also limits trades people's ability to focus on delivering high-quality services to clients.

Tradestack: Empowering trades businesses to quote 20x faster and win more jobs

Tradestack addresses these challenges with a mobile-first, multi-agent system that surveys spaces, scopes projects, and prices jobs in seconds using text, voice notes, and photos. By automating back-office administration, Tradestack enables trades businesses to price jobs 20x faster with 80% less effort, increasing revenue by up to 50%.

A key feature of Tradestack’s system is its ability to calculate material quantities and find up-to-date material prices online. This automation not only saves tradespeople time but also helps newer professionals who may lack experience in quick and accurate estimation. By reducing the time and effort spent on quoting, Tradestack allows trades professionals to concentrate on their core work, improving efficiency and customer satisfaction.

Tradestack transforms operations for small and medium-sized trades businesses by automating the entire pre-execution process. Their AI-driven system automates lead qualification, project scoping, quoting, and job scheduling, significantly reducing the time required for these tasks. This allows trades professionals to focus on core services, improve customer satisfaction, and boost earnings.

Starting with quoting for painters and decorators, Tradestack’s assistant uses advanced technologies, including language models, computer vision, and agent infrastructure, to analyze projects, generate line items, calculate costs, source materials, and check material prices online. It then produces a branded PDF quote for clients.

By automating the quoting process, Tradestack helps tradespeople save hours each week, respond to clients faster, secure more jobs, and optimise their schedules to fill last-minute openings.

Strong founder market fit: Industry experts with proven track records

Tradestack’s leadership team brings together a wealth of experience in construction, property, and AI technology:

Sarel (CEO) has over four years of startup experience in Proptech and a background in construction. He previously led corporate development at Sook, a UK proptech startup, where he raised over £6 million and generated £2 million in revenue. He holds degrees in engineering, law, and business, including an MBA from Oxford.

Alexandra (COO) is a seasoned operations and real estate expert with a strong track record of innovation. A third-generation property professional, she previously led operations at Kontor, where she automated sales processes and achieved 4x revenue growth in four years. She holds an MSc in Finance from the London School of Economics. Her passion for real estate and construction was sparked by early exposure to the industry through her family's work in real estate and visits to construction sites.

Vaibhav (CTO) has extensive experience scaling AI applications to over a million users and developing machine learning solutions at leading tech companies in India. He specialises in multi-agent AI systems and product development, which are crucial to Tradestack’s success.

Together, the team’s domain expertise in construction, property, and AI positions Tradestack as a leader in automating admin processes for trades businesses.

Antler’s investment thesis:

Our investment in Tradestack is anchored in the impressive backgrounds and capabilities of its founders: Sarel, the CEO, has startup experience and a background in construction, Alexandra, the COO, is a seasoned operations and real estate expert, and Vaibhav, the CTO, specialises in scaling AI applications.

In the months following Antler’s investment, Tradestack has made significant strides by forming strategic partnerships providing access to 29,000 UK trades professionals and recruiting industry leaders as advisors to support their growth. Their focus on paid user acquisition has led to securing their first paying customer—a notable milestone. They are also finalizing an activation campaign on the P&D forum, set to launch this week, to boost prospect engagement and conversion. With a goal to exceed the September sales target, these developments underscore Tradestack's strong momentum and potential for continued success.

We have seen the generative AI stack evolving rapidly, especially as the technology matures. We are confident in the growing ubiquity of multi-agent systems for augmenting and automating business processes, which is the core of what Tradestack is building. Currently, their product is a guided multi-agent system that assists painters through various stages of the quoting process, striking a balance between flexibility and reliability. 

With their diverse expertise, innovative technology, and the growing trend toward automation, Tradestack is exceptionally well-positioned for rapid growth in the UK and beyond.