Gather AI acquires software-focused drone inventory competitor, Ware

Gather AI, a provider of artificial intelligence (AI)-powered autonomous inventory management solutions using commodity hardware, announced today that it is acquiring the business of Ware, another large player in the market. With this acquisition, Gather AI said it now has 25 customers, more than any other autonomous inventory management solution provider.

The global warehouse market is expected to grow at 7.7% CAGR and reach USD 1.26 trillion by 2030, Gather AI noted. Driving this growth are the global restructuring of manufacturing and logistics and a transition to online commerce. This strategic shift is causing a rapid overhaul of the supply chain with 71% percent of warehouses reporting that this is driving a change in the way they manage their inventory, Gather AI added.

“Understanding inventory levels is critical for creating accurate forecasts and managing in this environment. We offer real-time inventory visibility to our customers through our AI software which turns commodity drones into autonomous data-gathering machines,” Gather AI CEO Sankalp Arora said. “Acquiring Ware’s business accelerates our growth further, bringing our proven solution to more warehouses, and enabling our customers to leverage data insights from across our growing network.”

With Gather AI's solution, AI software enables drones to fly autonomously through warehouses to photograph inventory stored in pallet locations. AI reads bar codes, text, and other information in the images and automatically compares it with what’s in the warehouse management system (WMS). The warehouse manager can view inventory data in real time from a web dashboard.

Gather AI stated it has seen an 8x revenue growth in the last year. Customers have seen solution benefits including a reduction in inventory counting staff from six to one, finding $1 million in lost inventory, reducing full facility scans from 90 days to 2.5 days, the company added. Results like these helped Gather AI raise a $10 million Series A last year. 

"We recognized the need for an autonomous inventory management solution to optimize inventory accuracy and minimize labor expenditure," expressed Jeff Keene, DPI Specialty Foods COO, and former Ware client. “After assessing the proven technology and witnessing the tangible benefits experienced by Gather AI customers, we enthusiastically agreed to implement their solution in three of our warehouses. We are excited to initiate the deployment and leverage the advantages it offers."

Ware and Gather AI were the only companies in the world that developed AI software to perform autonomous inventory management using off-the-shelf drones, according to Gather AI. “We share Gather AI’s philosophy that robots are becoming a commodity, and our value is in the data we provide to our customers,” said Ware CEO Hank Skorny. “We wanted to join forces with the other leader to quickly scale the market opportunity. Gather AI stood out as the best match because of their customer centricity, technology maturity, and our shared vision.”

Customers will be integrated into the Gather AI platform in the coming weeks with the support of the combined Ware and Gather AI teams.