A decade of real-world autonomy and enterprise growth positions Simbe to power the physical intelligence layer for retail

SAN FRANCISCO, Sept. 21, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Simbe, the physical intelligence platform for retail, today announced that it has surpassed 3,000 autonomous units under contract: the largest commercially committed fleet of shelf intelligence technology identified in company research. In the decade since introducing Tally, the world's first inventory robot, Simbe is building on that sustained leadership to evolve from leading in autonomous shelf digitization to building a broader platform for the physical store.

Today, Simbe combines autonomous robots, computer vision, RFID, handheld and fixed sensing to continuously capture what is happening inside retail locations: from inventory availability and product location to prices, promotions, and merchandising conditions. Together, these capabilities make Simbe the only multimodal platform purpose-built for the physical store, turning live retail environments into machine-readable infrastructure.

Every deployment expands Simbe's understanding of what is true inside stores: capturing individual inventory conditions, how they change over time, and the patterns that emerge across entire store chains. Simbe brings this ground truth together, powering an expanding set of applications, workflows, AI agents and connected devices.

"Retailers are increasingly deploying physical intelligence across the enterprise," said Deborah Weinswig, Founder & CEO of Coresight Research. "Simbe's 3,000 unit milestone reflects that shift: trusted shelf-level data is becoming foundational to store operations, digital commerce, merchandising and supply chain decisions."

Simbe's deployment scale also places the company among a small group of physical AI companies operating fleets at thousands-unit scale. While many physical AI companies remain in pilots or early production, Simbe has spent a decade operating autonomously in dynamic public environments and scaling across leading retail enterprises:

- More than 75 retail banners globally across nearly a dozen countries.

- The first and only company to earn UL 3300 certification for a robot designed to operate in public.

- More than 90% of store managers working alongside Tally say the technology makes their jobs better.

"What works once in a lab doesn't often work in the real world, and it's brutally hard to build robotics that operate reliably across thousands of stores for the world's largest retailers," said Aidan Madigan-Curtis, Partner of Eclipse. "Simbe is the real deal. In a category full of promise, they're one of the rare companies delivering at global scale—showing how physical AI is becoming essential infrastructure for retail."

At scale, Simbe has advanced from robots that digitize shelves to shelf intelligence that informs the retail enterprise. Today, Simbe is focused on creating the physical intelligence layer for orchestrating increasingly autonomous store operations.

"Retail is one of the clearest proving grounds for physical AI at commercial scale, and this is just the beginning" said Brad Bogolea, co-founder and CEO of Simbe. "A decade of operating autonomously in stores has given us the foundation to think far beyond the robot. We're building the physical intelligence layer that enables retailers to understand and operate stores with greater autonomy."

About Simbe

Simbe is the physical intelligence and orchestration layer for retail. Its vertically-integrated platform combines autonomous robotics, computer vision, RFID, fixed sensing, and edge AI to continuously understand what is happening inside physical stores, orchestrate action, and verify intended outcomes. Every deployment expands Simbe's understanding of how conditions change, revealing patterns across entire store chains—from inventory availability and product location to prices, promotions, and merchandising conditions.

That intelligence powers a growing set of applications, workflows, AI agents, and connected devices, turning live retail environments into machine-readable infrastructure for increasingly autonomous store operations. Deployed across thousands of locations, Simbe empowers store teams and elevates the shopper experience in nearly a dozen countries.

CONTACT: [email protected]

SOURCE Simbe Robotics

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