Palona AI Raises $20M Series A for Multimodal Agent Layer Serving Brick-and-Mortar Businesses

Palona AI closed a $20M Series A led by Ardenwood Ventures with Fusion Fund, Defy and others, following a $10M seed in early 2025. The company sells a multimodal 'operating layer' that watches physical stores in real time and coordinates frontline teams; deployments include Din Tai Fung, Mountain Mike's Pizza, Giordano's and Cali BBQ, where Palona became the highest average-order-value channel.