Trigo founder launches Gain with $12 million Seed round to bring AI ‘employees’ into procurement | CTech

An Israeli startup is betting that supply chain complexity will accelerate the shift from automation to fully autonomous workforces. Gain, a Tel Aviv–based company, emerged from stealth on Monday with $12 million in Seed funding to deploy what it calls “AI Employees”, software agents designed to take over procurement and operational workflows from end to end.

The round was led by The Garage, with participation from BlueRed Partners and Bazan Group, Israel’s largest energy company. Tempo Beer Industries, the country’s largest brewer, is also piloting the technology.

Where early AI tools in procurement have acted as copilots to human staff, automating repetitive negotiations or contract processing, Gain is positioning itself as a step further: a system that can operate independently. Its “AI Employees”, currently branded as “Natalie” and “Bob”, are designed to devise category strategies, run supplier negotiations, execute contracts, and handle day-to-day transactions.

CEO Michael Gabay, who previously founded the retail automation platform Trigo, said the company’s aim was not to eliminate jobs but to address work that often goes undone. “Basic automation can’t handle the uncertainty and complexity of this field,” he said, adding that the technology had been refined through simulations, feedback, and compliance testing “until they consistently outperform humans, even 20-year veterans.”

Gabay founded the company with Dor Israeli (CTO), Elon Hait (COO) and Jason Busch (Strategy). Israeli previously worked at Quantum Machines, where he was the Director of Technology at the Israeli Quantum Computing Center. Hait served as CEO of Artemis Defense Solutions.

“After a decade working with leading grocers and CPGs, I saw the big challenges in sourcing and procurement,” Gabay noted. “Our AI Employees don’t replace jobs—they support teams by tackling work that otherwise goes undone and delivering real value. Pilot feedback has been very strong, and we’re excited to expand deployments.”

Trigo, a computer vision company that develops infrastructure for autonomous retail stores and retail analytics, was founded in 2018 by brothers Michael (CEO) and Daniel (CTO) Gabay. It transforms existing supermarkets into fully autonomous digital stores where feeds from ceiling-mounted cameras and shelf sensors are analyzed to generate a “digital twin” of the store.

Trigo has raised over $200 million and its solutions are currently deployed with some of the world’s leading grocery retailers, including Tesco PLC in the UK, ALDI Nord in The Netherlands, REWE Group in Berlin and Cologne, Netto Marken-Discount (also known as Netto) in Munich, Israel’s Shufersal (SAE), and Wakefern Food Corp., the largest retailer-owned cooperative in the U.S.