Rundoo raises $30M to help independent retailers take on Home Depot and other big-box chains with AI

The neighborhood hardware store may never have Home Depot’s budget or army of analysts. Rundoo thinks AI can help close some of that gap.

The Redwood City, California-based startup has raised $30 million in Series B funding to bring AI-powered retail software to independent hardware, paint, lawn and garden, farm and feed, and lumber stores. Battery Ventures led the round, with existing investors Bessemer Venture Partners and CRV participating. The new investment brings Rundoo’s total funding to $48 million.

“Rundoo exists to empower independent supply stores with the best technology. Today, we are honored to announce that we’ve raised $30m to accelerate this mission,” Rundoo said in a blog post announcing the funding.

Founded in 2021 by Stanford graduates Nick Hershey and Andrew Beckman, Rundoo has grown to more than 500 stores across the U.S., Canada, and the Caribbean. The company plans to use the fresh capital to grow its engineering team in Redwood City and its go-to-market operation in Chicago.

Rundoo is going after a part of retail that rarely gets the same Silicon Valley attention as e-commerce or consumer brands: independent supply stores still competing against giants such as Home Depot, Sherwin-Williams, and Tractor Supply.

Its pitch is straightforward. Give smaller operators access to software and AI capabilities that large chains can afford to build internally.

“Our clients supply the materials that allow our communities to build and care for the world around us, and our technology helps them do that better and more efficiently,” said Nick Hershey, Rundoo’s co-founder and CEO. “With continuing competition from big-box stores, macroeconomic challenges like tariffs and oil shocks, and ever-changing consumer expectations, owning an independent supply store is a challenging endeavor. Our platform gives independent store owners the same operational power that much larger corporations use to grow revenue and expand.”

Bringing AI to the neighborhood hardware store

Rundoo combines point-of-sale, e-commerce, customer relationship management, loyalty programs, accounting, and other retail functions in one system. Sitting on top of those operations is Dooey, its AI agent.

The interesting part is what Dooey can do with a store’s own business data.

A garden center preparing for summer, for example, can ask the agent to create a purchase order using historical sales, upcoming weather, and known local landscaping bids. It can identify potential promotions and help market them to customers. At the end of the day, it can summarize top-selling products, new customers, unusual returns, and items sold below a store owner’s target margin.

That is less about putting a chatbot next to a cash register and more about giving a small retailer something resembling an always-available business analyst.

Rundoo says customers have recorded reductions of more than 25% in receivables and typical gross-margin improvements of 1% to 2%. Those are company-provided figures, but they point to the metric that matters most for independent retailers: whether AI can produce measurable financial gains rather than another software subscription.

The company has also been building industry integrations. Rundoo works with Benjamin Moore, connecting directly with the paint maker’s tint software so independent dealers can retain customer color information and manage tinting through their systems.

Rundoo Team (Credit: Rundoo)

Battery Ventures general partner Michael Brown, who is joining Rundoo’s board, sees a parallel with ServiceTitan, the software company he previously backed that built its business serving contractors and trades.

“Independent supply stores are one of the largest categories of American retail that still runs on decades-old systems,” Brown said. “The owners aren’t behind the times; their software is. We watched ServiceTitan close that same gap for the trades and become the operating system for an entire industry. Rundoo is doing it for the stores that supply those trades, and the loyalty of Rundoo’s clients tells you everything about where this is headed.”

That comparison captures Rundoo’s larger bet. AI adoption may be associated with tech companies and large corporations, but millions of smaller businesses face many of the same inventory, pricing, marketing, and data problems.

For Rundoo, the opportunity sits behind the counters of businesses that Silicon Valley has largely overlooked. Home Depot has scale. Independent stores have local relationships and specialized knowledge. Rundoo bets that AI can give those smaller operators another tool in the fight.

Rundoo Co-Founder and CEO