Cash to go towards tripling team size

Robotics as a service (RAAS) company Formic Technologies has raised $27 million in series A funding.

The financing round was led by Lux Capital, with participation by Correlation Ventures, One Planet VC and Lorimer Ventures.

The company said it plans to use the new funds to triple its team, expand into new regions and work with more partners.

“We’ve been incredibly busy this last year building out our company and we’re just getting started,” said Saman Farid, co-founder and CEO of Formic.

“We will use these funds to scale up our teams across every area of the business, with a particular focus on sales, engineering, finance, and marketing.”

Formic was founded in 2020 by Farid, formerly head of Baidu’s U.S.-based venture fund.

Prior to the company’s series A, it raised $100 million in debt business funding at the turn of the year to fund investments in equipment.

Formic provides manufacturers with robots from brands including ABB and KUKA, all of which the startup programs, installs and maintains, which are paid for by the hour.

Formic said its products “make automating risk-free for factories, removes the need for upfront investment and removes the need for complexity or internal resources.”

Among its customers are Polar Manufacturing, which makes door and truck body hardware for industrial applications, and Georgia Nut, the confectionery retailer.

As part of Lux’s investment, partner Shahin Farschi will join Formic’s board of directors