Gather AI raises $40M Series B to hire and scale warehouse drone platform

Gather AI, a local startup that develops autonomous drones for warehouses, announced today it raised $40 million in Series B funding. 

The new funding will be used to help the company expand its customer base and hire more engineers and customer service staff. Plus, Gather AI plans to use some of the money to develop tools that can proactively predict what inventory warehouses will need to order in the near future.

“Our customers aren’t just finding problems faster. They’re preventing them entirely,” Sankalp Arora, CEO and cofounder of Gather AI, said in a prepared statement. “That shift from reactive to proactive is what transforms physical AI from a nice-to-have into the operating system for modern logistics.”

The company specializes in physical AI, or machines that incorporate artificial intelligence to perform tasks in the real world. It adds its proprietary software to off-the-shelf drones, allowing them to fly autonomously and gather information needed for warehouse operations. 

Smith Point Capital Management led Gather’s Series B round, with participation from Bain Capital Ventures, Tribeca Venture Partners, Bling Capital, Dundee Venture Capital, XRC Ventures and new Pittsburgh investor The Hillman Company. The funding has boosted the company’s total raised to $74 million since it spun out from Carnegie Mellon University in 2017. 

The company declined to disclose its post-deal valuation in the recent funding announcement.

Gather totals $74M raised

Gather AI raised $17 million in March 2024 at a $72 million valuation, according to PitchBook. At the time, it was one of the top five largest local deals that quarter. 

Gather AI is just one of the AI-powered startups garnering serious attention in the city and raising Pittsburgh’s national profile. Arora previously pointed to major funding rounds from companies like Abridge, Gecko Robotics and Skild AI as signs that Pittsburgh’s AI ecosystem is heating up. 

The industry’s growing success is further positioning Pittsburgh as a growing hub for physical AI.

“The buzz is greater than ever,” Arora told Technical.ly in July 2025. “As a result of the capital flowing in now, talent also has mobility within the city, which means hiring talent becomes easier.”

Gather’s latest raise comes after the company has grown its bookings by 250% over the last year, according to the recent announcement. Gather AI’s platform is now used by companies like the gas station chain Kwik Trip and the global supply-chain services company GEODIS. 

“I think more and more dangerous and monotonous jobs that require physical labor, that are operations critical but put people in harm’s way, will be automated,” Arora said to Technical.ly last year. “That’s what really excites me about physical AI, that you can really help people who need it the most.”