Formic raises $50M led by Mercato to move its robot-rental fleet toward general-purpose robots

Formic, the Chicago company that rents factory robots to US manufacturers instead of selling them, said on Oct 22 that it has raised $50 million in growth capital. The package combines a Series B led by Mercato Partners, with Light Ray Ventures, Lightscape Partners, Citi and other new and existing investors, and debt financing from S2G Investments. The press release does not say how much of the $50 million is equity and how much is debt, and Formic gave no valuation.

The number that matters more than the round size is the operating record behind it. Formic says its robots have now logged more than 750,000 hours of live production. In its June 2024 funding release the figure was 100,000 hours. That is a 7.5-fold increase in about 28 months, and it is the asset Formic now wants to turn into something bigger than a rental business.

What the money is for: from palletizers to general-purpose robots

Formic's business today is task-specific automation. It installs robots for palletizing, case packing, machine tending, kitting and assist work in food and beverage, consumer goods, chemicals, aerospace, defense and packaging plants, and charges a single recurring monthly payment that covers the equipment, deployment software, field service, maintenance, financing and performance monitoring. The customer puts up no capital. The company says it runs hundreds of robots in more than 100 facilities across over 30 states, with 99.6% fleet uptime and a 97% renewal rate.

The new money is meant to move that platform toward general-purpose robotics, the company said, so that more types of robots can take on more complex jobs through the same service model. It will also fund an expansion into metal fabrication and deeper work in aerospace, space, defense, medical and energy. Formic assembles and tests robots at a new facility in Bolingbrook, Illinois, and develops new capabilities at an R&D centre in Oakland, California. It says it now puts robots into production about three times faster than a year ago.

Why Physical Intelligence is the detail to watch

The most strategic line in the release is a partnership. Formic says it is working with Physical Intelligence to combine that company's robot foundation models with Formic's production data and operating know-how, adapting the models for manufacturing tasks. Physical Intelligence, which raised a $600 million Series B in November 2025, highlighted Formic in its Pi API beta announcement, according to Formic. A foundation model of this kind is a single neural network trained on many robots and tasks that can be fine-tuned to a new job with far less programming than a classic robot cell. MEKAWIRE's explainer on VLA models covers how they work.

The division of labour is the point. Model companies have the software but no factory footprint; Formic has the footprint, the service crews and the financing, and every installed robot generates data on tasks, conditions and corrections. Mercato managing director Ryan Sanders, who joins Formic's board, framed the bottleneck as the loading dock rather than the lab.

How the round compares

Formic has raised $103.9 million in disclosed capital since January 2022, with its rounds spaced 29 and 28 months apart. Method: sum of the three announced amounts; the latest includes an undisclosed share of debt.

Against the industrial-robot companies in MEKAWIRE's database, the round is small. Standard Bots raised a $200 million Series C in June and RobCo, which also offers robots on a subscription, raised $100 million in January. Mind Robotics took $900 million across two Series A tranches this year. Formic's $50 million is the smallest of the eight rounds of $50 million or more in the category over the past 12 months.