Palona AI has unveiled its multimodal AI operating layer for physical businesses, proven first in restaurants. Palona works with operators including Din Tai Fung, Mountain Mike's Pizza, Giordano's, Rooted Hospitality, and Cali BBQ to connect customer demand, live operations, and intelligent action. The company closed its Series A financing, bringing total funding to $20 million.
Palona AI launches multimodal AI operating layer for physical businesses.
Series A brings total funding to $20 million with Ardenwood Ventures and others.
Product suite includes Revenue Expansion, Revenue Intelligence, and Operations Excellence.
Multi-brand study recorded 481 orders across 194 location-days.
Cali BBQ Father's Day revenue increased 20% year over year.
Holds U.S. Patent No. 12,481,517 for orchestrating specialized AI agents.
Palona's product suite includes Revenue Expansion, Revenue Intelligence, and Operations Excellence. It captures and converts demand across calls, catering, private events, and large-order inquiries; identifies intent, value, and urgency; and turns operational signals into manager-ready workflows. Together, these capabilities form a continuous Capture → Understand → Act → Learn system that drives coordinated action across people, systems, and AI agents. A multi-brand production study spanning Cali BBQ, Rooted Hospitality, and Giordano's recorded 481 orders over 194 location-days and identified 305 large-order and catering inquiries across seven restaurants.
Palona invented a proprietary Interaction Model for Physical AI. Unlike systems that only detect objects or describe scenes, it represents how people, objects, places, and processes relate over time. Using spatial, temporal, and semantic context with calibrated uncertainty, it determines what is happening, whether action is required, and which workflow should follow. Palona holds U.S. Patent No. 12,481,517 for orchestrating specialized AI agents based on user intent, model performance, and real-time computing requirements.
"Physical businesses need AI that can understand what is happening and act in real time," said Maria Zhang, founder and CEO of Palona AI. "Palona turns demand, operational context and live signals into actions that drive revenue, quality and execution."
"Before Palona, calls we couldn't answer represented demand we couldn't capture. Now we're converting more of those conversations into orders and identifying catering opportunities we previously had no dedicated process to manage. For an operator, that's where AI becomes real. It creates measurable revenue while helping the team execute better," said Shawn Walchef, CEO of Cali BBQ.
About Palona AI
Palona AI is the AI operating layer for physical businesses, proven first in restaurants. Palona captures demand, understands live operations, and coordinates workflows that help businesses grow revenue, protect quality, and execute with consistency.
