Formic Raises $50 Million to Expand Robotics in US Factories

US-based Formic announced raising $50 million in growth capital, including a Series B round led by Mercato Partners and debt financing from S2G Investments, to expand the deployment of robotics in US factories.

The company stated that the round also saw participation from Light Ray Ventures, Lightscape Partners, Citi, as well as new and existing investors. Formic has been operating robotics in factories across more than 30 US states for over five years, logging over 750,000 hours of actual production across more than 100 facilities.

The company seeks to transition from task-specific automation to general-purpose robotics through a single platform that combines software, robotics, field operations, financing, and production data. The funding will enable it to expand into applications such as metal fabrication and strengthen its presence in aerospace, defense, medical, and energy sectors.

Founder and CEO Saman Farid said that building a capable robot is not the same challenge as operating it productively inside a real factory, adding that the company spent five years building a platform that bridges this gap.

What do these terms mean?

Physical AI: The use of artificial intelligence in devices that move and interact with the real world, such as robots in factories, rather than being limited to digital software.

General-Purpose Robotics: Robots designed to perform multiple different tasks rather than specializing in a single fixed task, increasing their flexibility on production lines.

Robotics-as-a-Service (RaaS): A model in which a factory contracts to use a robot for a recurring fee, instead of purchasing it and building its operational infrastructure itself.