Palona AI Unveils the Multimodal AI Operating Layer for Physical Businesses

Deployments demonstrate measurable revenue impact and proprietary advances in Physical AI following $20 Million Series A

LOS ALTOS, Calif., Aug. 17, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Palona AI 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.

Palona closed its Series A financing, bringing total funding to $20 million, including converted SAFEs. Investors include Ardenwood Ventures, CrimsonOx, UpHonest, Turbo, Llama Ventures, Neo, Fusion Fund, Defy and Maynard Webb, together with other institutional, strategic and individual investors.

Restaurants are Palona's first proof market, but the platform can extend to any physical business where customers and frontline teams interact.

"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."

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, not another dashboard.

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. At Cali BBQ, after more than a year in production, Father's Day revenue increased 20% year over year, while Palona became the restaurant's highest Average-Order-Value channel as its Revenue Expansion capabilities expanded to support catering and large orders.

"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.

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.

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.

For more information, visit palona.ai.

SOURCE Palona