Gather AI just closed a $40 million Series B led by Smith Point Capital, the VC firm founded by former Salesforce co-CEO Keith Block. The Pittsburgh-based startup isn't building typical warehouse drones - its AI-powered cameras and flying robots actively seek out specific inventory data, predict stockouts, and flag safety issues before they happen. With this round, the company has raised $74 million total and is betting that "curious" robots represent the future of warehouse automation.
Gather AI just scored a major vote of confidence from Silicon Valley's logistics elite. The warehouse robotics startup closed a $40 million Series B led by Smith Point Capital, the firm founded by Keith Block after his stint as co-CEO of Salesforce. The deal marks Block's biggest bet yet on the convergence of AI and physical automation.
The connection happened fast. Gather's team met Smith Point at a logistics conference a year ago, and "it took Keith and his team five minutes to get what we're doing," co-founder and CEO Sankalp Arora told TechCrunch. That instant chemistry isn't surprising - Block sits on the board of trustees at Carnegie Mellon University, where Gather's four founders met as PhD students building one of the first autonomous helicopters.
What makes Gather AI different from the pack of warehouse automation startups flooding the market? Its drones don't just scan randomly. They hunt. The company's AI platform turns off-the-shelf cameras mounted on forklifts and commercial drones into what Arora calls "curious" robots that actively seek out specific data points. Barcodes, lot codes, expiration dates, case counts, damages, occupancy rates - the system tracks everything warehouse managers need to know, logging findings directly into existing warehouse management systems.
