Gather AI Inc., a startup offering physical artificial intelligence for logistics inside warehouses, today announced that it has raised $40 million in new funding to expand to hundreds of additional facilities globally and support the development of predictive capabilities for proactive inventory management.

Founded in 2017, Gather AI offers physical AI — AI that learns from real, physical environments rather than text or internet data. It’s trained on millions of actual warehouse images so it can interpret what’s happening on the ground with very high accuracy.

The company pitches its technology as a way to close the longstanding gap between what digital systems believe is happening inside a warehouse and what is actually occurring on the floor and, in doing so, delivers a reliable source of ground-truth operational data.

Gather AI’s “intralogistics” platform offers continuous physical visibility into warehouse operations, particularly inventory location, movement and condition. The platform captures real-world data to provide an accurate, up-to-date view of inventory across large and complex facilities, with a focus on reducing errors, eliminating blind spots and improving decision-making.

The AI collects physical data using autonomous data capture methods, including computer vision and drones integrated with its software platform. The systems scan warehouse aisles, read labels, barcodes and text and automatically feed the information into enterprise systems without requiring fixed infrastructure changes or manual scanning.

Key to Gather AI’s offering is what the company describes as dock-to-dock intelligence, which extends visibility beyond isolated checkpoints such as receiving and shipping. The idea is that by tracking how goods move throughout the entire facility, Gather AI customers can understand operational flow, identify inefficiencies and detect bottlenecks that would otherwise remain hidden.

Gather AI has seen strong growth, including doubling its operational footprint and growing bookings 250% over the last year. The platform is being used by major logistics and manufacturing enterprises, including GEODIS SA, NFI Industries Inc., Kwik Trip Inc., Axon Enterprise Inc. Dnata World AG, Barrett Distribution Centers Inc. and Langham Logistics Inc.

The Series B round was led by Smith Point Capital Management, with Bain Capital Ventures, Tribeca Venture Partners, Bling Capital Management, Dundee Venture Capital Inc., XRC Ventures and The Hillman Companies Inc. also participating.

“For too long, supply chains have operated with a fundamental blind spot: they couldn’t see what was actually happening on the floor,” said co-founder and Chief Executive Sankalp Arora. “This funding allows us to expand from real-time visibility to full autonomous orchestration.”

The new funding takes the total raised by Gather AI to $74 million.

Image: Gather AI