VP – Engineering - Integrated Robotics Systems

Tally creator Simbe lays claim to largest commercially committed fleet of shelf intelligence technology. Simbe reports that it has surpassed 3,000 autonomous units under contract, which is pitched as the largest commercially committed fleet of shelf intelligence technology (as identified in the company's research). In the decade since introducing Tally, an inventory robot, Simbe has been shifting from autonomous shelf digitisation 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. "Retailers are increasingly deploying physical intelligence across the enterprise," says Deborah Weinswig, Founder and CEO at 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." Highlights include: More than 75 retail banners globally, including BJ's Wholesale Club, Kroger, and SPAR; 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," says Aidan Madigan-Curtis, General Partner at Eclipse Ventures. "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." "Retail is one of the clearest proving grounds for physical AI at commercial scale, and this is just the beginning" says Brad Bogolea, Co-founder and CEO at 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." So hot right now Simbe is included in RTIH's first ever Retail Technology Hot 100 List. Launching in August, this sees Retailtechinnovationhub bringing you the hottest companies whose solutions and systems are helping drive the retail sector forward. Its Founder and Editor, Scott Thompson, drew up a list of 150 companies that had consistently been on his radar over the past 12 months whilst bringing its community the latest retail tech news and views that matter. These companies operate across the omnichannel retail landscape (stores, online, mobile, supply chain, payments etc). Its judging panel, including Vineta Bajaj, Group CFO, Holland & Barrett, Dan McGrath, JD Group Customer Operations, JD Sports, Dr. Astha Purohit, Director of Product Management, Customer Data and Identity, Walmart, and Paula Bobbett, Chief Data and Digital Officer, Boots, provided feedback on those who have the most innovative, forward thinking technology offerings and are also best addressing retailers' current challenges, painpoints, and opportunities. The judges used the following framework when making their picks: 1. Retailer problem fit - how meaningful, strategic, and widely felt the retailer pain being addressed is. 2. Production traction in retail (2025-2026) - real named retailer deployments, pilots. 3. Innovation and defensibility - genuine technical novelty paired with a defensible competitive position. And there was also a public vote, with thousands of members of its community of retail tech enthusiasts getting involved. Thanks to all those who took part! Based on the judging panel's feedback and the public vote, Retailtechinnovationhub then drew up its first ever RTIH Retail Technology Hot 100. So, without further ado, here are the 100 hottest global retail technology ventures right now. Drum roll, please...

Simbe expands leadership as retailers scale physical AI across the enterprise. Claudia Molina joins Simbe as Vice President of Client Success, while Caitlin Allen and Benjamin Bond assume new FMI leadership roles focused on foundations of AI-powered retail. As retailers scale physical AI across their enterprises, they are gaining something the industry has long lacked: a continuous, real-time understanding of what is physically true inside stores. That ground truth is becoming a critical foundation for AI-powered operations, enabling retailers to take more intelligent action across merchandising, fulfillment, supply chain and the broader retail ecosystem. To help retailers realize that opportunity at scale, Simbe, the leading platform for shelf intelligence, announced the appointment of Claudia Molina as Vice President of Client Success, alongside new industry leadership roles for Senior Vice President of Marketing Caitlin Allen and Senior Vice President of Strategy & Client Success Benjamin Bond at Food Marketing Institute (FMI). Together, the appointments expand Simbe's leadership both in helping global retailers translate physical intelligence into enterprise value and in advancing the industry practices that will shape the future of AI-powered retail. As Vice President of Client Success, Molina will help Simbe's growing base of global retailers translate that intelligence into enterprise transformation and sustained business value. She joins Simbe following leadership roles at Meta, JPMorgan and American Express, where she led customer strategy, operational transformation and enterprise growth initiatives. At Simbe, she will guide executive customer relationships, long-term success strategies and transformation programs as retailers expand physical AI across hundreds and thousands of locations. "Physical AI offers an entirely new operating layer for retail," said Brad Bogolea, CEO and Co-Founder of Simbe. "The opportunity extends beyond identifying what's happening on a shelf. Trusted, real-time ground truth of the store enables retailers to orchestrate actions across channels. Claudia brings the strategic and enterprise experience to help our clients realize that value at scale." Simbe's expanding leadership within FMI reflects the company's growing role in advancing that transformation across the industry. Allen has been appointed to FMI's Daunting Data Dilemma Industry Task Force, where she will contribute to industry efforts focused on retail data quality, interoperability and real-time operational visibility. Bond has joined FMI's Fresh Food Leadership Council, contributing expertise to initiatives focused on improving forecasting, reducing food waste and increasing visibility across fresh operations. Both areas represent increasingly important challenges as retailers adopt AI. The quality of AI-driven decisions depends on the quality of the underlying data, including an accurate understanding of product availability, location, pricing, promotions and inventory conditions inside physical stores. "We're pleased to welcome Caitlin Allen and Benjamin Bond to these important industry leadership roles, where their combination of retail expertise, technology leadership and operational perspective will strengthen the work of our committees," said Doug Baker, Vice President of Industry Relations at FMI. "We look forward to collaborating with them as FMI's Daunting Data Dilemma Industry Task Force and Fresh Food Leadership Council advance practical frameworks and best practices for the food retail industry." The appointments build on a period of significant expansion for Simbe as retailers increasingly standardize physical intelligence across their enterprises. Simbe's platform combines proprietary robotics, computer vision, RFID, fixed sensors, edge AI and enterprise software to create a continuously updated picture of store conditions and orchestrate the actions that follow. That foundation is designed to make physical retail increasingly intelligent: first establishing trusted ground truth, then turning that intelligence into workflows and applications that help people operate stores even more effectively. With deployments across thousands of locations in nearly a dozen countries, Simbe is building the physical intelligence infrastructure connecting the store to the increasingly AI-powered systems, teams and channels that depend on it.