Formic Raises $50 Million to Advance General Robotics
The firm is shifting from task-specific automation to general-purpose systems to serve new industrial sectors.
Updated on Oct. 22, 2026 in Robotics
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Chicago-based robotics firm Formic announced a $50 million Series B financing round led by Mercato Partners. The company plans to use the capital to transition from task-specific automation to general-purpose robotics, with a focus on industries like metal fabrication.
Why it matters
Formic is moving to generalize its robotic foundation models beyond narrow tasks to address broader manufacturing needs. This pivot seeks to scale their existing Robot-as-a-Service model into complex sectors like aerospace and defense.
Formic reports a fleet uptime of 99.6% across more than 100 facilities. The company has accumulated over 750,000 hours of live production experience while maintaining a customer renewal rate of 97%.
The players
Formic
A Chicago-headquartered firm that provides a managed Robot-as-a-Service platform for automated manufacturing.
Mercato Partners
The investment firm that led the $50 million Series B financing round.
The details
Formic operates on a Robot-as-a-Service model that consolidates equipment, software, maintenance, and financing into a single monthly fee. The system uses robotic foundation models—algorithms trained on massive datasets to handle diverse tasks—combined with real-world production data to calibrate hardware for specific manufacturing applications. Assembly and testing occur in Bolingbrook, Illinois, while new capabilities are developed at an R&D center in Oakland, California.
Timeline
Formic was founded in 2020.
The $50 million Series B funding was announced on October 22, 2026.
The Tech Race
Formic is shifting from fixed-task deployments to general-purpose systems using robotic foundation models. This puts them in competition with other industrial automation providers aiming to reduce deployment times, which Formic currently claims to have improved by three times over the last year.
Manufacturing operators using Formic services may see faster system deployments compared to previous years. The company currently supports facilities across more than 30 states, with plans to expand its automation capabilities into new sectors such as energy and medical technology.
The takeaway
Formic is betting that standardized, service-based robotics can transition from simple task execution to complex, multi-industry utility. Watch for the company's progress in metal fabrication, which serves as a key performance indicator for their new general-purpose model strategy.
Further reading
Explore the broader shifts in Robotics to understand how managed automation is changing the manufacturing sector.
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