Simbe Robotics closes major Series A funding round

Simbe Robotics has landed $26 million in a Series A equity funding round led by Venrock, with participation from Future Shape, Valo Ventures, and Activant Capital. The US startup has also announced an inventory financing agreement with SoftBank Robotics, financial terms of which were not disclosed.

Simbe will use the cash to grow its team, scale up sales and also for marketing and customer service, and continued investment in research and development. In addition, its board of directors will get three new members: Tony Fadell, Principal at Future Shape; David Pakman, Partner at Venrock; and Ryan Gembala, Managing Partner at Pathbreaker Ventures.

The inventory financing agreement expands on Simbe’s existing partnership with SoftBank Robotics America, which began in 2018. The additional funds will be used to support scaled manufacturing of an additional 1,000 units of its Tally inventory robot over the next two years.

Tally autonomously navigates physical retail stores, executing inventory auditing tasks through computer vision and RFID scanning technology. Simbe then provides it clients with e-commerce-level insights into shelf data up to three times per day.

The robots have been deployed at such retailers as Schnuck Markets, Giant Eagle, Decathlon USA and Groupe Casino. “Our investors, both previous and new, provide much more than financial support. They are advocates and trusted advisors who bring invaluable institutional knowledge to all facets of our business,” says Brad Bogolea, Co-Founder and CEO, Simbe.

"Both our equity financing partners and the SoftBank Robotics team are deeply aligned with our vision to revitalise physical retail through data. We are at a pivotal time of growth and value their support as we continue to transform retail at a global scale.”