Aformic Raises $6.95M Seed Led by Veteran Ventures Capital for Autonomous Factory Robots
South Carolina robotics company Aformic has raised $6.95 million in its first institutional funding round, led by Veteran Ventures Capital (VVC). Aformic builds autonomous mobile robots and fleet software that move materials around factories and warehouses, so workers can spend less time carrying parts and more time making things. The seed round was announced on 4 November 2026.
ff Venture Capital, Red Beard Ventures and Mana Ventures also took part, along with other investors. Derren Burrell, founder and managing partner of VVC, joins Aformic's board. The company plans to use the money to strengthen its balance sheet and expand across North American manufacturing and the defence industrial base.
Deal summary
Company | Aformic |
Headquarters | Duncan, South Carolina, USA |
Engineering and production | Gliwice, Poland |
Sector | Robotics, industrial automation |
Round | Seed (first institutional round) |
Amount | $6.95M |
Lead investor | Veteran Ventures Capital (Fund II) |
Other investors | ff Venture Capital, Red Beard Ventures, Mana Ventures and others |
CEO | Michal Fiuk, West Point graduate and US Army veteran |
Board seat | Derren Burrell, Veteran Ventures Capital |
Announced | 4 November 2026 |
What Aformic does
Aformic designs and deploys autonomous mobile robots, or AMRs. Unlike fixed conveyor belts or robot arms bolted to the floor, AMRs drive themselves around a site, carrying parts and materials from one step to the next and feeding production lines.
The company has two main parts to its offering:
Product | What it is |
F-series robots | Customised AMRs, including underride platforms that slide under carts and lift them, and autonomous forklifts |
Qursor | Fleet management software that coordinates the robots and connects them to plant systems |
According to the company, the robots use lidar to navigate with one-centimetre accuracy and can carry loads of up to 2,000 lbs (about 900 kg). Aformic says its software and integration let factories change production setups without rebuilding the floor, a common problem with older fixed automation.
Aformic was spun out of AIUT, an industrial automation and robotics group with more than 30 years of engineering experience. That history is reflected in its two bases: commercial headquarters in Duncan, South Carolina, and an engineering and production centre in Gliwice, Poland.
The company says it already has robots running at several Fortune 500 companies and Tier 1 defence manufacturers. It has not named them.
"America's manufacturers need skilled workers building products, not moving materials. Our robots free them to do that," said CEO Michal Fiuk.
Why it matters: the US factory labour gap
Aformic is pitching its robots as an answer to a labour shortage, not a replacement for skilled staff.
A 2024 study by the Manufacturing Institute and Deloitte estimated that US manufacturers could need as many as 3.8 million new workers between 2024 and 2033. Up to 1.9 million of those jobs could go unfilled if skills and applicant gaps persist. In the National Association of Manufacturers' outlook survey for the first quarter of 2024, 65% of respondents named attracting and keeping talent as their top business challenge.
Aformic's release adds two more points:
Studies suggest that 15% to 50% of factory labour hours go on moving parts between steps rather than adding value.
US manufacturing productivity has stalled for more than a decade.
If a share of those hours can be handed to robots, the same workforce can spend more time on the skilled work that is hardest to hire for. That is the argument behind Fiuk's line about workers "building products, not moving materials."
Who backed the round, and the defence angle
Veteran Ventures Capital, based in McLean, Virginia, led the round through its second fund. VVC invests in dual-use national security technology, meaning products with both commercial and defence uses, and focuses on companies led by military veterans. Its portfolio includes Vatn Systems, Hidden Level, Cambium, Agile Space Industries, Turion Space, Hybron Technologies, Radian Forge and Asylon Robotics.
That focus explains the defence emphasis in the announcement. According to the release:
The US Army is spending $18 billion to modernise and automate depots that date back to the Second World War.
The Pentagon has started a 15-year industrial modernisation plan, which Aformic sees as a potential source of demand.
"We believe Physical AI will transform American manufacturing, and Aformic has what it takes to lead that shift," said Derren Burrell, founder and managing partner of VVC.
"With VVC helping open doors across the defense industrial base, Aformic will be a category leader."
"Physical AI" is the industry's term for AI that acts in the physical world through robots and machines, rather than only producing text or images.
ff Venture Capital, Red Beard Ventures and Mana Ventures also invested. The release does not give a valuation or say how much each investor put in.
A busy year for robotics funding
Aformic is raising in one of the strongest markets robotics startups have seen. Crunchbase data published in October 2026 shows:
Measure | Figure |
Global robotics startup funding, Q3 2026 | $9.9B, up from $4.3B in Q3 2025 |
China, 2026 year to date | $13.2B |
United States, 2026 year to date | $12.1B |
Germany, 2026 year to date | $1.7B |
Robotics companies that became unicorns in 2026 | About 45 |
Much of that money has gone to very large rounds for general-purpose robots and robot "foundation models." Skild AI in Pittsburgh raised $1.4 billion, as did Germany's Neura Robotics. In China, Xpeng Robotics raised $900 million.
Aformic sits at the other end of the market. It sells practical, task-specific machines that do one job well, moving materials, into factories that need help now. Its $6.95 million seed is small next to those headline rounds, but the company says its robots are already deployed at customer sites.
In that sense it has more in common with Shackleton AI, which raised a $5M seed this week to automate admin on construction sites, than with the general-purpose robotics companies raising billions.
Its edge, if it has one, is focus: a narrow use case, an existing engineering base in Poland through AIUT, and investors with links to US defence manufacturing.
What to watch next
Named customers. Aformic says it works with Fortune 500 companies and Tier 1 defence manufacturers but has not named any. Public case studies would show the scale of its deployments.
Defence contracts. With VVC on the board and the Army's depot modernisation under way, a first defence contract would be a major milestone.
US production. Engineering and production currently sit in Poland. Defence buyers often prefer domestic supply chains, so watch for any plans to build in the US.
Fleet software. Robots are the visible part, but Qursor, the software that runs them, is where recurring revenue and switching costs usually come from in this market.
Next round. This is Aformic's first institutional raise. How quickly its current deployments grow will shape the size and timing of a Series A.