Thursday, March 20, 2025
CHICAGO—March 20, 2025—Formic, a Robots-as-a-Service (RaaS) automation provider for U.S. manufacturers, announced it has joined the New American Industrial Alliance (NAIA) to further its mission to revitalize the U.S. manufacturing sector through more accessible automation and workforce training initiatives. NAIA is a multi-sector trade association comprised of builders, investors, and policymakers focused on reindustrialization by restoring manufacturing capacity and strengthening...
Read MoreWednesday, February 5, 2025
CHICAGO—February 5, 2025—Formic, a Robots-as-a-Service (RaaS) automation provider for U.S. manufacturers, deployed five gantry-style palletizing robots at Land O’Frost’s Lansing, Illinois, manufacturing facility, saving them 20% on labor-related OpEx daily and transitioning employees from manually stacking boxes onto pallets to being robot operators. Formic’s Full Service Palletizer Rental program optimized end-of-line production, increasing safety and production while bolstering employee skills...
Read MoreTuesday, January 7, 2025
CHICAGO—January 7, 2025—Formic, a Robots-as-a-Service (RaaS) automation provider for U.S. manufacturers, announced that the company surpassed 200,000 production hours, that means Formic is delivering the equivalent of 5 months of human labor every single business day with its fleet of robotic automation equipment. To celebrate, the company is hosting its first Formic Automation Community event on January 23, 2025, at...
Read MoreWednesday, December 11, 2024
CHICAGO—December 12, 2024—Formic, a Robots-as-a-Service (RaaS) automation provider for U.S. manufacturers, officially announced the addition of Joel Onyshuk as its Vice President of Sales and Todd Plotner as the company’s first General Counsel. Following continued business growth and an additional Series A financing round of $27.4 million in June, Onyshuk and Plotner's collective industry experience supports the company’s goal to...
Read MoreTuesday, June 25, 2024
CHICAGO—June 25, 2024—Formic, a provider of Robots-as-a-Service (RaaS) automation for U.S. manufacturers, today announced it has raised another $27.4 million in Series A financing led by Blackhorn Ventures with participation from Mitsubishi HC Capital America, NEC and Translink Orchestrating Future Fund, Alumni Ventures, FJ Labs, Lux Capital, Initialized Capital and Lorimer Ventures. This new funding brings the total Series A...
Read MoreWednesday, January 17, 2024
CHICAGO, IL - Formic Technologies, a provider of Robotics-as-a-Service automation for US manufacturers, announced the release of a suite of software tools to accelerate and simplify the deployment of robotic automation systems for businesses with no internal expertise, while also empowering their existing workforce to thrive and grow with the new technology. The Formic software is based on data and...
Read MoreWednesday, March 8, 2023
Formic, a robotics-as-a-service provider, has been named the Most Innovative Company in the Robotics category by Fast Company. The award recognizes Formic's ability to provide cutting-edge technology solutions to industrial manufacturers and help them stay ahead of the competition. Formic's platform provides a flexible and scalable robotics solution to small and mid-sized manufacturing businesses. The company's innovative approach to robotics...
Read MoreWednesday, December 14, 2022
Honored for empowering SMBs to strengthen U.S. supply chain with pay-for-productivity robotic solutions Award spotlights top software and technology startups in the supply chain and logistics space CHICAGO, December 14, 2022 — Formic, accelerating the adoption of automation across American manufacturing, was selected as one of this year’s Top Tech Startups by the Food Logistics and Supply & Demand Chain...
Read MoreTuesday, November 1, 2022
Robotics companies have joined other industries in feeling the economy’s pain, but Formic, with its robotics-as-a-service (RaaS) platform, is an outlier. The company, which rents out robots for $8 to $30 an hour, is accelerating automation adoption for US manufacturers. Formic recently reported increasing its customer count 70% QoQ following a $26.5 million Series A round in January. It also increased its headcount 35%, and brought on Amazon alum Karl...
Read MoreMonday, October 31, 2022
Company reshuffle sees Seegrid alum Jack Kaumo hired as new VP of Sales, with Co-Founder Misa Ilkhechi promoted to VP of Product and Partnerships CHICAGO―October, 2022, Formic, accelerating the adoption of automation across American manufacturing, today announced that automation sales leadership exec Jack Kaumo has been joined as VP of Sales, with Co-Founder Misa Ilkhechi promoted to VP of...
Read MoreWednesday, October 26, 2022
CHICAGO―October 23, 2022, Formic, accelerating the adoption of automation across American manufacturing, today announced the release of the SL20 Palletizer – the inaugural product in a new catalog of certified, off-the-shelf, robotics-as-a-service solutions available at a low cost per hour. Built by Sourcelink Solutions, Formic’s new offering further underlines Formic’s commitment to removing the barriers to automation so that small...
Read MoreSunday, October 2, 2022
Formic's unique Robots-as-as-Service model activated a cobot within hours of delivery, cut costs on hiring and re-training temporary workers, and enhanced safety CHICAGO―Sept 26, 2022, Formic, accelerating the adoption of automation across American manufacturing, empowered Compact Industries, Inc. – a mid-sized food and beverage packaging specialist founded in 1963 – by designing and deploying the company’s first robotic system, a...
Read MoreTuesday, September 6, 2022
Considering the rising competition from low-wage manufacturers offshore and the dearth of job candidates willing and able to work with their hands, one would assume that American manufacturers are in a rush to automate their production lines. Not quite, as the founders of Formic Technologies in Chicago can tell you. Misa Ilkhechi and Saman Farid started Formic two years ago...
Read MoreThursday, August 18, 2022
Formic’s risk-free, affordable, full-service pay-by-the-hour rental model removes traditional barriers to automation, helping small and mid-sized manufacturers compete CHICAGO―August, 2022, Formic, accelerating the adoption of automation across American manufacturing, has seen sustained 70% QoQ growth in both customer count and ARR since announcing $26.5 million in Series A funding in January and today announced a slate of new hires that...
Read MoreThursday, March 31, 2022
Society has long worried that the widespread adoption of robots will displace workers and eliminate jobs. But rather than fearing the arrival of automatons, Shakerria Grier, a 27-year-old quality auditor at Georgia-based Thomson Plastics Inc., is relieved to get the help. In late 2020, Thomson began installing robots that take plastic parts, such as fenders for ATVs or covers for lawn...
Read MoreMonday, February 7, 2022
Formic Technologies Raises $26.5 Million Series A Led By Lux Capital The new investments will help Formic accelerate deployments of Robotics-as-a-Service for U.S. manufacturers CHICAGO—January 18, 2022—Formic Technologies, a provider of turnkey robotic solutions to American manufacturers, has raised $26.5 million in a Series A financing led by Lux Capital with participation from Initialized Capital, Correlation Ventures, Lorimer Ventures, One...
Read MoreFriday, February 4, 2022
DCL logistics, like so many American firms, had a problem last year. Its business, fulfilling orders of goods sold online, faced surging demand. But competition for warehouse workers was fierce, wages were rising and staff turnover was high. So dcl made two changes. It bought robots to pick items off shelves and place them in boxes. And it reduced its reliance on part-time...
Read MoreTuesday, January 18, 2022
POLAR MANUFACTURING has been making metal hinges, locks, and brackets in south Chicago for more than 100 years. Some of the company’s metal presses—hulking great machines that loom over a worker—date from the 1950s. Last year, to meet rising demand amid a shortage of workers, Polar hired its first robot employee. The robot arm performs a simple, repetitive job: lifting a piece of...
Read MoreMonday, November 22, 2021
Polar Manufacturing Rents Fully Customized Machine Tending Robot from Formic; Automates for First Time in 105 Years Formic’s innovative “robotics-as-a-service” model lowers traditional barriers to automation; Polar Manufacturing Company expects to save up to $77,000 a year in labor costs. CHICAGO―November 22, 2021-- Polar Hardware, a manufacturer of door and truck body hardware, chose Formic’s “robotics-as-a-service” offering to automate for...
Read MoreTuesday, October 12, 2021
Misa Ilkhechi has seen his share of idle welding robots. With stints in sales and engineering at companies like Bosch and, most recently, Universal Robots, Ilkhechi would visit various metal fabrication facilities, see a busy welding department, and yet also see a robot welding cell gathering dust. Sometimes the company couldn’t find time to train someone to run it. Other...
Read MoreWednesday, September 1, 2021
First Fully Customized Robotics-as-a-Service Offering Lets Manufacturers ‘Hire’ Popular Robots at Low Hourly Rate By handling every aspect of financing and deployment, Formic empowers manufacturers to save money from day one and boost production. CHICAGO, IL — August 24, 2021-- Robotics-as-a-service company Formic Technologies launched today with a simple value proposition: hire fully customized robots from top vendors at a...
Read MoreThursday, August 26, 2021
LIVERMORE, Calif., Aug 26 (Reuters) - Silicon Valley has a new pitch to persuade small companies to automate: rent-a-robot. Better technology and the need to pay higher wages to humans have produced a surge in sales of robots to big companies all across America. But few of these automatons are making it into smaller factories, which are wary of big...
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