Gather AI raises $40M to scale warehouse automation

Gather AI, a startup offering an AI platform for warehouse cameras and drones, has raised $40 million in a Series B funding round. The investment was led by Smith Point Capital, a venture capital firm founded by former Salesforce co-CEO Keith Block. The Gather team first met Smith Point a year ago at a logistics conference, and co-founder and CEO Sankalp Arora noted that the venture firm’s team quickly understood the startup’s business. This latest round brings the startup’s total funding to $74 million. Other investors include Bain Capital Ventures, XRC Ventures, and Hillman Investments.

Rather than relying on large language models (LLMs), Gather AI uses probability-based methods to interpret visual data. According to Arora, the startup’s technology does not rely on end-to-end neural networks. “They are classical Bayesian techniques, combined with neural networks,” Arora said. This approach allows off-the-shelf cameras placed on strategic moving equipment like forklifts, as well as off-the-shelf drones flying around the warehouse, to monitor on-the-floor operations and log what they find directly into warehouse management systems. The system is designed to identify and predict inventory issues, such as low stock or misplaced items, as well as workflows that may cause safety issues. In addition to barcodes, the cameras look for lot codes, text, expiration dates, case counts, damages, and occupancy.

The startup was launched in 2017 by founders who met as PhD students at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU), a research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where Block serves as a trustee. The founders previously built one of the first autonomous helicopters and tested it on FBI training grounds in Quantico, later applying those lessons on safe flight to warehouse automation. Today, Gather AI employs about 60 people. Its technology is deployed across industrial environments, including cold storage and freezers, which are environments unfriendly to people. In December, the startup won the 2025 Nebius Robotics award for Vision AI and Streaming Video Analytics from Nebius, a Netherlands company that provides AI infrastructure.

The company’s customer base includes:

• Kwik Trip
• Axon
• GEODIS
• NFI Industries

Why it matters

Gather AI is applying “curious” AI—using Bayesian techniques rather than LLMs—to warehouse automation, a sector they are expanding in with $40 million in new funding. By avoiding the hallucination issues common in LLMs, the startup demonstrates how specialized, non-generative AI models can solve precise physical logistics challenges.