Gather AI – the makers of computer vision and AI-powered warehouse inventory monitoring solutions – announced a $17 million Series A-1 led by Bain Capital Ventures with participation from Tribeca Venture Partners, Dundee Venture Capital, Expa, and Bling Capital.
This new funding round raises the total to $34 million. The funding will be invested in scaling operations as Gather AI continues to attract customers by solving supply chain issues with richer data and AI.
Companies are combating low accuracy with cycle counting through barcode scanning. But these counts only partially represent inventory and capacity constraints make it challenging for workers to survey the full warehouse.
Inaccurate inventory can cost a business hundreds of thousands yearly per warehouse and significant revenue loss in missed orders. Gather AI mitigates this issue by automating inventory visibility challenges through autonomous drones across third-party logistics, manufacturing, and retail facilities, with richer data than warehouses can obtain with barcodes. The company’s customers include NFI, GEODIS, DSV, Barrett Distribution, and DPI Specialty Foods (KeHE).
Through the Gather AI solution, AI software enables drones to fly autonomously through warehouses, scanning 15 times faster than traditional means. And 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). Warehouse managers can view inventory data in real-time from a web dashboard. And Gather AI customers see an ROI of 3x to 5x, driven by a 66% reduction in warehouse inventory database errors.
Last year, Gather AI doubled the number of warehouses it serves and increased bookings by 2.5x. Due to customer expansion and continued strong market demand, the company is poised to triple its operations this year.
After launching from Carnegie Mellon University’s Robotics Institute, Gather AI was launched in 2017 by co-founders Sankalp Arora, Daniel Maturana and Geetesh Dubey. And together, they have expertise in deep learning, autonomy, and computer vision.
KEY QUOTES:
“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. 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.”
- Ajay Agarwal, partner at Bain Capital Ventures
“The Gather AI solution seamlessly integrated into our warehouse operations, delivering swift results. Our employees engaged well with the system, leading to a notable 5x productivity increase within five months using a single drone.”
- Cody Merritt, Director of Solution Design and Innovation at NFI
“We’re already seeing the positive impact of Gather AI on customers spanning third-party logistics, retail, food and beverage, and manufacturing. 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.”
- Sankalp Arora, co-founder and CEO of Gather AI
