Gather AI, makers of computer vision and AI-powered warehouse inventory monitoring solutions, announced a $17M Series A-1 led by Bain Capital Ventures with participation from Tribeca Venture Partners, Dundee Venture Capital, Expa, and Bling Capital. The new funding provides a total of $34M raised to date. It will be invested in scaling operations as Gather AI continues to attract customers by solving supply chain issues with richer data and AI.
“AI-powered cameras will transform supply-chain traceability to have a similar impact that barcodes did in the 1980s, and our technology is at the forefront of this transformation.”
Today, companies combat low accuracy with cycle counting via barcode scanning. Still, these counts only partially represent inventory, and capacity constraints make it difficult for workers to survey the full warehouse. On average, inaccurate inventory can cost a business hundreds of thousands per year per warehouse and significant revenue loss in missed orders. Gather AI automates inventory visibility challenges through autonomous drones across third-party logistics, manufacturing, and retail facilities, with much richer data than warehouses can currently obtain with barcodes. Customers include NFI, GEODIS, DSV, Barrett Distribution, and DPI Specialty Foods (KeHE).
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“Gather AI’s cutting-edge computer vision and workflow software, purpose-built for inventory monitoring, has seen significant commercial adoption and rapid growth separating them from the field of other venture-backed startups,” said Ajay Agarwal, partner at Bain Capital Ventures. “We are excited to welcome Gather AI to our portfolio of companies such as Kiva, ShipBob, FourKites, and Vention that are leveraging AI and software in the physical world.”
With the Gather AI solution, AI software enables drones to fly autonomously through warehouses, scanning 15 times faster than traditional means. Additional AI infers bar codes, text, empty locations, and other inventory-related information in the images, automatically comparing them with what’s in the warehouse management system (WMS). The warehouse manager can then view inventory data in real time from a web dashboard. Gather AI customers are seeing an ROI of 3-5x, driven by a 66% reduction in warehouse inventory database errors.
“The Gather AI solution seamlessly integrated into our warehouse operations, delivering swift results,” said Cody Merritt, Director of Solution Design and Innovation at NFI. “Our employees engaged well with the system, leading to a notable 5x productivity increase within five months using a single drone.”
“We’re already seeing the positive impact of Gather AI on customers spanning third-party logistics, retail, food and beverage, and manufacturing,” said Sankalp Arora, co-founder and CEO of Gather AI. “AI-powered cameras will transform supply-chain traceability to have a similar impact that barcodes did in the 1980s, and our technology is at the forefront of this transformation.”
Gather AI was founded in 2017 by co-founders Sankalp Arora, Daniel Maturana and Geetesh Dubey, after launching from Carnegie Mellon University’s Robotics Institute. Together, they have deep expertise in deep learning, autonomy, and computer vision.
Last year, the company doubled the number of warehouses it serves and increased bookings by 2.5x. This year, the company is poised to triple its operations thanks to customer expansion and continued strong market demand.
