Amazon Robotics Founding Engineer, Andrew Hoffman, Joins Gather AI as CTO as Company Supercharges Growth

Today Gather AI welcomes Andrew Hoffman as Chief Technology Officer (CTO). Gather AI offers AI-powered autonomous inventory management solutions for warehouses using drones and Hoffman brings technical and leadership experience scaling supply chain-focused robotics companies from founding to exit, with over 20 patents in robots, robot coordination, and collision avoidance.

Hoffman was a founding engineer at two supply chain robotics companies which were later acquired by Amazon - Kiva Systems (now Amazon Robotics) and CANVAS Technology.

"At Amazon Robotics, I had the tremendous opportunity to see how great business acuity, solid technical execution, and unwavering customer obsession leads to significant advancements in our industry," says Hoffman. "I'm excited to join the strong Gather AI leadership team as they have the same chemistry that made Amazon Robotics successful."

Hoffman's supply chain robotics career began at Amazon Robotics where he and his colleagues transformed the future of the industry by developing automated guided vehicles (AGVs) that could navigate warehouses using a series of floor-based computerized barcode stickers. He was a key technical leader throughout, moving the company from a mere concept to Amazon-scale size and reliability, trusted to drive many business-critical technical challenges along the way. Amazon Robotics now has over 750,000 robots deployed throughout Amazon's distribution network.

He went on to join another autonomous robotics company, CANVAS Technology, as one of the first employees and ran their mobility team. Hoffman leveraged data to improve the movement of autonomous robots through warehouses and led the team building the company's vision-based traversability, motion planning, and control technologies.

Hoffman most recently served as an Entrepreneur in Residence at tech-focused venture capital firm, Xplorer Capital, a Gather AI investor, where he has mentored several companies, including Gather AI. He joins the company today as CTO to help supercharge its growth.

"The Gather AI team has already proven their ability to deliver an industry-leading solution, and Andrew's experience and technical depth in autonomous robotics is ideal to help them achieve the next level of success," says Xplorer Capital Managing Partner and Gather AI Board Member, Jonathan McQueen.

"Amazon Robotics revolutionized the way warehouses work, and their strategies are even referenced as case studies in business and engineering schools today," says Gather AI CEO and Co-Founder, Sankalp Arora. "Our advanced AI allows us to be the only company in the world that can deliver drone-powered inventory monitoring using off-the-shelf drones. We can scale like a pure software business and deliver the richest data insights to our customers. This year, Gather AI's ARR has doubled, and Andrew, with a strong background in scaling robot networks in the supply chain, is uniquely suited to help us continue to accelerate our growth."

Hoffman's supply chain robotics experience complements the Gather AI leadership team which consists of the founders and deep AI experts, Arora, Daniel Maturana, Geetesh Dubey, and President and COO Charlie Reverte, who joined last year. Reverte brought SaaS experience across robotics, augmented reality, and large-scale data systems. Their collective knowledge positions Gather AI for market growth and affirms their place as the industry leader, with the most customers among competitors.

About Gather AI: Pittsburgh-based Gather AI is the market leader in supply chain AI to decrease the cost of inventory, improve productivity, and boost revenue. Gather AI was founded in 2017 by Carnegie Mellon University alumni Sankalp Arora, Ph.D., Daniel Maturana, Ph.D., and Geetesh Dubey. The Gather AI solution is currently deployed in warehouses across third-party logistics, retail distribution, manufacturing, food & beverage, and health & wellness at companies including Bosch USA, GEODIS, NFI Industries, Barrett Distribution, Army & Air Force Exchange Service (AAFES), KeHE, and more. In 2023, Gather AI received several awards, including CB Insights' annual Retail Tech 100, SupplyChainBrain's Great Supply Chain Partner Awards, Peerless Media's NextGen Supply Chain Awards, Food Logistics and Supply & Demand Chain Executive Top Tech Startup Awards, and the Pittsburgh Inno Fire Awards. Gather AI is backed by Tribeca Venture Partners, Xplorer Capital, Dundee Venture Capital, Expa, Bling Capital, XRC Ventures, and 99 Tartans. To learn more about Gather AI, visit www.gather.ai and on YouTube and LinkedIn.