The Home Depot boosts on demand delivery push with SIMPL Automation startup acquisition following pilot

The Home Depot has acquired SIMPL Automation, a two year old US-based startup focused on automation and technology systems. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

SIMPL uses engineering and AI technology with the aim of helping distribution facilities operate faster and more efficiently. The Home Depot says that the technology furthers its strategy of same-day/next-day fulfillment while also improving safety and increasing speed.

The acquisition follows a pilot at The Home Depot’s Locust Grove, Ga. distribution centre, where it drove faster pick speed, faster cycle times and less product touches. It also has a patented storage and retrieval solution that helps maximise storage density, allowing the home improvement retailer to house a broader assortment of high demand products closer to the customer.

“We’re focused on providing the best interconnected experience in home improvement by having products in stock and ready to deliver to our customers whether it's to the home or jobsite,” says Amit Kalra, Senior Vice President of Supply Chain at The Home Depot. “By bringing SIMPL’s industry leading automation into our operations, we’re accelerating the flow of products through our distribution network to deliver with unprecedented speed and precision.”

Andy Williams, Executive VP of Sales North American at Exotec, comments: "Home Depot just acquired a two-year-old startup to build its warehouse automation in-house. Here's the track record of that strategy from companies with vastly more resources. Amazon bought Kiva Systems in 2012 for $775 million. Thirteen years later, their robotics arm still requires thousands of engineers, billions in ongoing R&D, and a dedicated subsidiary. Amazon is a logistics company. They are still building."

"Walmart signed an $11 billion deal with Symbotic in 2022 to retrofit 42 regional distribution centres. The roll-out is years behind schedule. Walmart publicly extended the timeline in both 2023 and 2024. Walmart's core competency is supply chain. They are still struggling. Attabotics, an ASRS startup Home Depot reportedly evaluated and passed on, filed Chapter 11 in mid-2024."

"That is the landscape Home Depot is entering - not by buying a platform with a decade of field hardened deployments, the way Amazon did, but by acquiring a company founded in 2023 on the strength of a single DC pilot. The pitch for going in-house usually sounds like: "Software is a core competency, why pay someone else a margin?"But warehouse automation isn't software."

He adds: "The deeper issue is the one every Home Depot exec should be asking aloud: what is our core competency? It is being the best home improvement retailer in the world. BOPIS. Store ops. Pro relationships. Category management. That is where leadership focus drives same-store sales. Every hour an executive spends debating why a put-wall isn't hitting its rate target is an hour not spent on the thing that actually compounds. Amazon and Walmart can afford that tax because logistics is the business. Home Depot cannot."

"This isn't a bold contrarian bet. It's a common strategic error dressed in modern automation language - "in-house," "proprietary," "vertical integration" - applied to a domain where every company that tried it at scale, with more capital and more logistics DNA than Home Depot has, is still paying the price. The pilots always look great. The roll-outs are where the bodies are buried. I'll be watching the rate curves."

2026 RTIH Innovation Awards

Warehouse automation will be a key focus area at the 2026 RTIH Innovation Awards.

The awards are now open for entries and celebrate global retail technology innovation in a fast moving omnichannel world.

Our winners will be revealed at the 2026 RTIH Innovation Awards Ceremony, taking place at The HAC in Central London on Wednesday, 4th November.

Check out our 2025 winners here.

Our 2025 hall of fame entrants were revealed during a sold out event which took place at The HAC on 16th October and consisted of a drinks reception, three course meal, and awards ceremony presided over by award winning comedian, actress and writer Tiff Stevenson.

In his welcome speech, Scott Thompson, Founder and Editor, RTIH, said: “This is the awards’ fifth year as a physical event. We started off with just 30 people at the South Place Hotel not far from here, then moved to London Bridge Hotel, then The Barbican, and last year RIBA’s HQ in the West End.”

“But I’m conscious of the fact that, to quote the legend that is Taylor Swift, You’re only as hot as your last hit, baby. So, this year we’ve moved to our biggest venue yet, and also pulled in our largest number of entries to date and broken attendance records.”

He added: “This year’s submissions have without doubt been our best yet. To quote one of the judges: The examples of innovative developments across both traditional and digital retail spaces were truly remarkable.”

Congratulations to our winners, and a big thank you to our sponsors, judging panel, the legend that is Tiff Stevenson, and all those who attended our 2025 gathering.