Simbe Robotics raises $28M in venture capital financing

Simbe Robotics, Inc., which specializes in retail automation, artificial intelligence and robotics, has raised $28 million in Series B equity financing, the company announced.  

The company’s shelf-scanning robots and inventory management system, known as Tally, have been adopted by a wide variety of grocers in the last few years, including BJ’s Wholesale, Hy-Vee, Schnuck Markets, Wakefern Food Corp., Giant Eagle and others. 

Financing, led by U.S. venture capital firm Eclipse Ventures, will help scale the company to “meet rising global customer demand, enter future product areas, expand its team and continue delivering value to new and existing partners by optimizing both in-store and e-commerce operations,” the robotics company said in announcing the funding.

“We're honored to be supported by an investor like Eclipse, with a team that recognizes technology's incredible potential to significantly enhance retail operations, as well as greatly improve the customer experience,” said Brad Bogolea, CEO and co-founder of Simbe. “Elevating the retail experience for everyone—retailers, their associates, and customers—through AI and robotics is the foundation of Simbe’s mission, and this funding will enable us to share this vision and reimagined experience with more retail partners around the world.” 

The company’s fully autonomous inventory management robots have become more commonplace in grocery stores in recent years and maintain the ability to produce “exact product location data and identify out-of-stock, misplaced or mispriced products at more than 99% accuracy,” the company said.  

“As today’s retailers grapple with inaccurate shelf data and antiquated inventory management processes, Simbe is completely revolutionizing the industry through AI and robotics — proving to be an invaluable solution that curbs these obstacles,” said Jay Knafel, partner at Eclipse, in a statement. 

The financing follows Simbe's Series A funding round in 2019, for a lifetime funding total of $54 million.