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Formic raises $50M to bring general-purpose robots to US factories. Formic says its robots run in more than 100 US facilities with 99.6% uptime. A humanoid packing boxes in its launch video shows what it wants to do next. October 23, 2026 - 11:56 am Formic, a Chicago company that rents robots to American factories, has raised $50M. Today its robots are built for specific tasks. The money will help it move to general-purpose machines that can take on more kinds of factory work. Axios first reported the round on Thursday, after chief executive Saman Farid spoke to Natalie Breymeyer. Formic announced it the same day. The money combines a Series B led by Mercato Partners with debt financing from S2G Investments. Formic did not say how the $50M splits between the two. Light Ray Ventures, Lightscape Partners and Citi also invested. Lux Capital, Initialized Capital, Blackhorn Ventures and Lorimer Ventures put in more money too. Early investor Stephan Cizmar named them on LinkedIn. "Building a capable robot and making it productive in a real factory are two very different challenges," Farid said in a statement. Robots for a monthly fee. Formic, founded in 2020, sells what it calls Robot-as-a-Service. Customers pay one monthly fee for the robots, the software, maintenance and financing, with no upfront cost. Formic takes responsibility for keeping the machines running. The company says it runs hundreds of robots in more than 100 facilities across over 30 states. They palletise, pack cases, tend machines and assemble kits for food, packaging, chemicals, aerospace and defence customers. Formic says its fleet has logged more than 750,000 hours of live production. It reports 99.6% uptime, and says 97% of customers renew. TNW has not verified those figures. "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. From one task to many. The next step is general-purpose robotics. Formic is working with Physical Intelligence to adapt that company's robot foundation models for factory work, using Formic's production data. Physical Intelligence mentioned the work when it opened its API in beta. A video with the announcement shows a humanoid robot packing bags into a box. It works next to a Formic palletiser. Formic calls it an early look at the shift. It also plans to move into metal fabrication and to do more in aerospace, space, defence, medical and energy. The company assembles and tests its robots at a new site in Bolingbrook, Illinois, and runs research in Oakland, California. It says it now puts robots into production about three times faster than a year ago. Who gets the value. The physical AI boom raises a question, Axios noted: whether the value lies in building robots and models or in putting them to work. Robot makers such as Agility are fitting Nvidia computers into humanoids, and Google is building software for factory robots. Others sell the data, such as Maxinsights, which raised $30M this week. Formic says its business is putting them to work. Shawn Fitzgerald is Formic's chief marketing officer. He wrote on LinkedIn that one in two US citizens has eaten or used a product packed or stacked by its robots this year. TNW has not verified that figure. Get the most important tech news in your inbox each week.

Formic raises $50 million to scale Physical AI across American manufacturing. 1:00 pm, PT, October 22, 2026 Series B led by Mercato Partners will accelerate the expansion into general-purpose robotics, building on more than 750,000 hours of live production across 100+ facilities. CHICAGO-(BUSINESS WIRE)-October 22, 2026- Formic, the commercialization platform for physical AI, today announced it has raised $50 million in growth capital. The financing includes a Series B led by Mercato Partners, with participation from Light Ray Ventures, Lightscape Partners, Citi, and other new and existing investors, as well as debt financing from S2G Investments. Formic palletizing systems ready to ship from its Bolingbrook, Illinois facility, part of a fleet operating across more than 100 facilities in over 30 states. As AI models and robotics hardware become more capable, a fundamental challenge remains: getting robots to work reliably in real-world production environments. For more than five years, Formic has been solving this problem across American factory floors in more than 30 states, accumulating over 750,000 hours of live production experience. Its AI-powered software, robots, field operations, financing model, and production data infrastructure turn robotic capability into measurable industrial output every day. Drawing on the team's deep operational knowledge of deploying robots nationwide, Formic is expanding from task-specific automation into general-purpose robotics, enabling a broader range of robots to perform increasingly complex tasks across industries through a single platform that builds on the operational intelligence gained with each deployment. The funding will accelerate that shift and strengthen Formic's AI and robotics capabilities. It will also help Formic expand into new applications such as metal fabrication and deepen its work in aerospace, space, defense, medical, energy, and the broader U.S. industrial base. The result: more manufacturers can grow domestic production capacity without the capital costs and complexity of traditional automation. "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." The Commercialization Platform for Physical AI Formic takes responsibility for the outcome of its systems, not just the installation. Formic's Robot-as-a-Service model combines equipment, deployment software, field operations, maintenance, financing, and performance monitoring into one platform, all for one recurring monthly payment. The result is a single accountable partner responsible for bringing robots into production and keeping them productive, with no upfront capital investment required from the customer. Today, Formic operates hundreds of robots across more than 100 facilities in over 30 states. Its fleet runs at 99.6% uptime, and 97% of customers renew. Applications span palletizing, case packing, machine tending, kitting, assist work, and more across food and beverage, consumer packaged goods, chemicals, aerospace, defense, packaging, and the broader U.S. industrial base. These deployments represent more than an installed base. They provide the operational foundation for Formic's next phase of scale and growth. Every robot operates in a real production environment, generating data about tasks, operating conditions, performance, and corrective actions. That feedback helps inform robot improvements and future deployments, creating the potential for a compounding advantage as the fleet grows and robotic capabilities advance. Formic now deploys robots into production approximately three times faster than it did a year ago. "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." From Task-Specific Robots to General-Purpose Robotics The next generation of physical AI will expand what robots can do. Formic will build on its existing deployment infrastructure to bring these increasingly capable systems into industrial environments. Its strategy is to serve more industries, automate more tasks, and deploy more types of robots through the same underlying platform, applying lessons and data collected from today's task-specific operating fleet to train the next generation of general-purpose robotic systems. Formic is already advancing this work with Physical Intelligence, combining its robotic foundation models with Formic's production data and operational expertise to adapt them for manufacturing applications. Physical Intelligence recently highlighted Formic's work in its Pi API beta announcement. Formic assembles and tests its robots at its new facility in Bolingbrook, Illinois, and develops new capabilities at its R&D center in Oakland, California, giving it the capacity to deploy at a scale few can match. "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." About Formic Founded in 2020, Formic is building the commercialization platform for physical AI, bringing increasingly capable robots into real-world manufacturing environments. Through its Robots-as-a-Service model, Formic combines robotic equipment, deployment software, field operations, financing, and production data to help manufacturers automate without upfront capital investment. For one flat monthly rate, Formic provides the equipment and systems to perform the job, the service and parts to keep them running, and the technology and software to measure productivity and optimize performance. Formic's mission is to accelerate automation across American manufacturing, helping businesses increase capacity, consistency, and reliability while reducing costs, downtime, and workplace safety risks. Brooklyn Kiosow Marketing Communications Manager [email protected]