All News
The Most Innovative Companies in Robotics and Engineering for 2025
#1 Simbe Robotics
For turning its shopkeeping robots into retail analysts
According to the research firm IHL Group, inventory inefficiencies cost the retail industry more than $1.7 trillion in 2023. Simbe has been tackling the problem since 2015, when it introduced its first Tally robot to automate some of the most tedious tasks in retail (scanning store shelves to conduct product audits). Tally traverses the aisles of stores to perform machine-vision inventories of the shelves and floor displays, delivering real-time data to store employees about inaccurately priced products and stock shortages. In January 2024, Simbe introduced its robots into a wholesale environment for the first time: A new version of Tally, developed in partnership with BJ’s Wholesale, adds longer-range vision and pallet analysis tools that can handle taller warehouse stacks. Simbe is also taking its Tally bots into farm supply stores through a new partnership with Country Supplier, which is deploying Simbe technology in C-A-L Ranch and Coastal Farm & Ranch stores across six states.
But Simbe isn’t just offering retailers greater insight and efficiency; it’s now focused on helping brands themselves. Simbe started offering retailers the option to sell data that its robots collect. Its new brand-insights platform, launched in October, delivers product-level data to the brands that retail partners carry. Already, grocery chain Schnucks uses the platform to provide Coca-Cola, Frito-Lay, and others with unprecedented real-time transparency into product placement, stock status, and promotion execution. Simbe says stores that deploy Tally have cut online order fulfillment time in half while experiencing 60% fewer out-of-stock items and 90% fewer pricing mistakes. In the bargain, store employees get back up to 50 hours of time they had previously spent scanning barcodes by hand that they can now spend on face-to-face interactions with customers. In October, the company completed a $50 million raise, increasing its total funding to date to $105 million.
Ready to see Simbe in your store?
With Store Intelligence, your teams can focus on delivering exceptional shopper experiences—while technology handles the tedious, time-consuming tasks.
