Formic, a commercialization platform for physical AI, announced that it has raised US$50 million in growth capital to expand robotics deployment across American manufacturing. The financing includes a Series B led by Mercato Partners, with participation from Light Ray Ventures, Lightscape Partners, Citi, and other investors, alongside debt financing from S2G Investments. The new capital will support the company's transition from task-specific automation into general-purpose robotics after accumulating more than 750,000 hours of live production experience across over 100 facilities.
Closing the Gap Between Lab and Factory Floor
Although AI models and robotics hardware have become more capable, the fundamental challenge remains deploying robots reliably in real production environments. Formic has spent more than five years solving that problem across factory floors in more than 30 states, using AI-powered software, robots, field operations, financing, and production data infrastructure. The company turns robotic capability into measurable industrial output every day, building the operational intelligence that supports each new deployment.
Expanding into General-Purpose Robotics
Formic is now extending its platform beyond task-specific automation to support a broader range of robots performing increasingly complex tasks across industries. The funding will accelerate that shift, strengthen AI and robotics capabilities, and help the company expand into new applications such as metal fabrication. It will also deepen Formic's work in aerospace, space, defense, medical, energy, and the broader U.S. industrial base, allowing manufacturers to grow domestic production capacity without traditional capital costs.
A Proven Robot-as-a-Service Model
Formic takes responsibility for system outcomes rather than installation alone, combining equipment, deployment software, field operations, maintenance, financing, and performance monitoring into one platform for a recurring monthly payment. Today the company operates hundreds of robots across more than 100 facilities in over 30 states, with fleet uptime of 99.6% and a 97% customer renewal rate. Applications span palletizing, case packing, machine tending, kitting, assist work, and more across food and beverage, consumer packaged goods, chemicals, aerospace, defense, and packaging.
Production Data and Compounding Advantage
Every robot in Formic's fleet 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.
Strategic Partnerships and Investor Support
Chief Executive Officer Saman Farid said that building a capable robot and making it productive in a real factory are two different challenges, and the company has spent five years closing that gap. Mercato Partners Managing Director Ryan Sanders added that the bottleneck is moving from the lab to the loading dock, where deployment, servicing, and financing in real plants matter most. Formic is also working with Physical Intelligence to adapt robotic foundation models for manufacturing applications.
Manufacturing and R&D Footprint
Formic assembles and tests its robots at a facility in Bolingbrook, Illinois, while developing new capabilities at an R&D center in Oakland, California. The company says this combined operational footprint gives it the capacity to deploy systems at a scale few competitors can match. These capabilities support both current task-specific deployments and the next generation of general-purpose robotic systems.
Formic's new funding arrives at a time when manufacturers are seeking ways to increase capacity, consistency, and reliability while reducing costs, downtime, and workplace safety risks. The company's operating record, high renewal rate, and growing deployment speed indicate that its platform is becoming a compounding advantage as physical AI matures. By removing upfront capital requirements and taking responsibility for production outcomes, Formic aims to put more robots to work on American factory floors and support next-generation domestic manufacturing.