Formic has raised $50 million in growth capital to expand its physical AI platform and accelerate its move from task-specific industrial automation into general-purpose robotics. 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. Formic also secured debt financing from S2G Investments.
Founded in 2020, Formic provides robotics to manufacturers through a Robot-as-a-Service model that combines equipment, deployment software, field operations, maintenance, financing, and performance monitoring into a recurring monthly payment.
The company operates hundreds of robots across more than 100 facilities in over 30 states and has accumulated more than 750,000 hours of live production experience. Formic said its fleet currently operates at 99.6% uptime, while 97% of customers renew.
Existing applications include palletizing, case packing, machine tending, kitting, and assist work across industries including food and beverage, consumer packaged goods, chemicals, aerospace, defense, and packaging.
The new funding will support Formic’s expansion into general-purpose robotics, allowing the company to deploy a broader range of robotic systems capable of handling increasingly complex manufacturing tasks through the same underlying infrastructure.
Formic also plans to expand into applications such as metal fabrication and deepen its presence in aerospace, space, defense, medical, energy, and other parts of the U.S. industrial base.
The company is working with Physical Intelligence to combine robotic foundation models with Formic’s production data and operating experience. Formic said information generated from its installed fleet, including task performance, operating conditions, and corrective actions, can help improve future deployments and robotic capabilities.
Formic now deploys robots into production approximately three times faster than it did a year ago.
The company assembles and tests robots at a new facility in Bolingbrook, Illinois, while developing additional capabilities at its research and development center in Oakland, California.
Ryan Sanders, Managing Director at Mercato Partners, will join Formic’s Board of Directors as part of the financing.
KEY QUOTES:
“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. 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.”
Saman Farid, Founder And CEO Of Formic
“As robots get smarter, the bottleneck moves from the lab to the loading dock: deploying, servicing and financing robots in real plants. 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.”
Ryan Sanders, Managing Director At Mercato Partners
“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. We’re proud to support Formic as it puts more robots to work on American factory floors.”
Marisa Sweeney, Principal At S2G Investments
