Formic, a platform that helps manufacturers use robots in their factories, has raised $50 million in growth funding to expand its AI and robotics business.
The funding includes a Series B round led by Mercato Partners, with participation from Light Ray Ventures, Lightscape Partners, Citi, and other new and existing investors. The company also secured debt financing from S2G Investments.
Founded in 2020, Formic helps manufacturers automate factory operations through its Robot-as-a-Service (RaaS) model. The platform provides robots, software, installation, maintenance, financing and performance monitoring for a fixed monthly payment, without requiring customers to make a large upfront investment.
“The robotics industry has made extraordinary progress in what robots can do. But building a capable robot and making it productive in a real factory are two very different challenges,” said Saman Farid, founder and CEO of Formic. “We’ve spent five years building the commercialization platform that bridges that gap. Now we’re extending that platform from task-specific automation to general-purpose robotics, bringing more robots, more intelligence, and more capabilities into production without requiring manufacturers to build the infrastructure themselves. For manufacturers, that means they can grow output and keep production here in the U.S. without betting their balance sheet on it.”
Formic has more than five years of experience deploying robots across American factories. The company currently operates hundreds of robots at more than 100 facilities across over 30 US states. Its robot fleet has reported 99.6% uptime, while 97% of its customers renew their contracts.
The robots are used for tasks such as palletizing, case packing, machine tending, and packaging across industries including food and beverages, chemicals, aerospace, defense, and consumer goods.
“As robots get smarter, the bottleneck moves from the lab to the loading dock: deploying, servicing and financing robots in real plants,” said Ryan Sanders, Managing Director at Mercato Partners, who joins Formic’s Board of Directors. “Formic has built all three, and its customers stay and add robots. That’s the operating record you want underneath the next generation of physical AI.”
“Formic has built a multi-year operating record across a large, active fleet, with systems that keep producing year after year. That kind of foundation is what supports growth at scale,” said Marisa Sweeney, Principal at S2G Investments. “We’re proud to support Formic as it puts more robots to work on American factory floors.”
Formic plans to use the new funding to expand its AI and robotics capabilities and move beyond task-specific automation towards general-purpose robotics. This will allow robots to handle a wider range of tasks across different industries.
The company also plans to expand into metal fabrication and strengthen its presence in aerospace, space, defense, medical, and energy sectors.
Formic is also working with Physical Intelligence to adapt its robotic foundation models for manufacturing applications by combining AI technology with Formic’s production data and operational experience.
The company assembles and tests robots at its facility in Bolingbrook, Illinois, and develops new capabilities at its research and development centre in Oakland, California.
With this funding, Formic aims to help more manufacturers increase production capacity, improve operational efficiency, and reduce the cost and complexity of factory automation.
