Celebrating 10 Years of Tally’s Global Impact

Over ten years ago, we set out to solve one of retail’s biggest mysteries: what’s actually happening on the shelf?

Back then, Shah, Jeff, and I couldn’t have imagined where that idea would lead. What began as laser-cut wood and 3D-printed plastic soon became our first robot prototype. We soon found ourselves in China, soldering late into the night and sleeping on a warehouse floor. Jeff and I were also both texting our now-wives, who (understandably) wondered if we’d lost our minds.

When we got back to the U.S., we needed to test Tally in real retail environments, so we brought our prototypes into stores. We got kicked out. A lot. So many times, in fact, that we started testing in libraries. At least there, the only risk was getting shushed.

Those early experiences taught us that innovation rarely looks glamorous up close, and that persistence and curiosity can go further than we initially think.

We wanted Tally to be approachable, even endearing—a “penguin-like” robot that made people smile. For many, meeting Tally was the first time they’d ever interacted with a robot in a public space. That spark of connection, where technology meets everyday life, remains extremely important to us today.

From Prototype to Partner

When we launched Tally on November 12, 2015, brick-and-mortar retail powered nearly 90% of commerce, as it does today. Yet stores operated on fragile systems that often missed the shelf, where every sale begins.

Tally was built to solve what we called retail’s last data desert—to give retailers true visibility at the precise moment that a shopper decides what to buy at the shelf.

In the days following Tally’s announcement, hundreds of global retailers, brands, and retail service providers reached out overnight. Choosing the right first client is critical for a new business, and Schnuck Markets was the perfect partner to start with. They became our first customer, the first retailer to deploy chainwide, and an invaluable ally in proving what was possible.

As adoption grew, the conversation around in-store data began to shift. Retailers and technologists alike started to see what we’d envisioned all along: the future of retail would be built on real-time, autonomous data. That momentum led to one of my favorite milestones: demoing Tally live on the NRF stage alongside Intel’s CEO, showing the world that retail robotics wasn’t just possible—it was here.

A Decade of Discovery

Since then, Tally has evolved from the world’s first autonomous inventory robot to the foundation of a connected system that’s redefining how retailers understand and operate their stores.

Today, Tally operates in 10 countries across three continents, supporting nearly five dozen of the world’s leading retailers across grocery, hypermarket, club, hardware, and alcohol formats.

Over the last decade, we’ve expanded with innovations like Tally RFID and Tally Spot, making Simbe the only retail technology company to unite fixed, autonomous, and RFID computer vision in one platform. We also introduced Simbe Brand Insights to bring shelf intelligence to brand partners and DSD vendors, helping retailers monetize their data.

This year, we announced advancements to Simbe Vision—our AI-powered computer vision technology that uses advanced sensors to analyze images of shelves and identify issues like low stock, misplaced products, price errors, and even the subtlest of differences between similar products. We also introduced Simbe for Merchants, our first team-specific solution.

Each advancement moves us closer to a world where retailers can see, understand, and act in real time to serve their shoppers and empower their teams with excellence.

The scale of what our fleet has achieved over the past decade best comes to life through the numbers. Tally has:

• Traveled 1.8M kilometers (45 trips around Earth)
• Captured 44B photos
• Logged 4.7M autonomous hours
• Scanned 18B price & promotion tags
• Detected 600M shelf gaps, helping retailers fix over 40% in near real time

Behind each number is a single truth: the shelf matters immensely. What happens there defines the retail experience, and we couldn’t be prouder that our clients’ teams now see it more clearly than ever.

While we hoped to create real business impact, the results have exceeded expectations across sales, margin, and market share. Simbe customers achieve 98% on-shelf availability, 90% improvement in price & promotion accuracy, and return up to 50 hours per week to store teams turning data into action and freeing associates to focus on customers.

Tally’s data creates a powerful flywheel of improvement that strengthens every core business process, from merchandising and supply chain to e-commerce and store operations. Retailers are reshaping their operating models around this intelligence, proving that automation isn’t just about efficiency; it’s about enabling people to do their best work.

Nearly nine in ten store managers say they prefer working in stores with Tally, and shoppers prefer buying there too.

Along the way, Tally has been named one of TIME Magazine’s Best Inventions and one of Fast Company’s Best Innovations in Tech.

Looking Back, Looking Forward

Ten years ago, in-store AI and automation were aspirational. Today, they’re essential.

AI and automation are now board-level priorities, with investment in store intelligence technologies up 151% year over year. Simbe now powers retailers across three continents, ten countries, and nearly a dozen retail verticals. We tripled our ARR in 2023, nearly doubled our store base in 2024, and are on track for our biggest year yet in 2025.

But what matters most isn’t scale, it’s impact.

Store teams call Tally their “power tool.” Kids ask to visit their “robot friend.” And the Simbe team—a brilliant, passionate group of people who’ve dedicated themselves to this mission—continue to deploy revolutionary AI and automation at scale across the planet. I couldn’t be more proud of what they’ve built or more grateful for how they’ve done it.

As we celebrate Tally’s tenth birthday, I’m reminded that technology is at its best when it serves people. That’s what Simbe has always been about: empowering retailers and their teams, enriching the shopping experience, and making retail more intelligent and most importantly, human.

As we look ahead, a new era of Tally is on the horizon, which we look forward to introducing soon to again redefine what’s possible with store intelligence.

To our customers, partners, and investors, thank you for believing in this vision and building the future with us.

The next era of retail intelligence is coming sooner than you’d expect and we’re just getting started.