Insider Brief
- Fort Robotics plans to go public through a merger with Newbury Street II Acquisition Corp. in a deal valuing the robotics safety company at a pro forma enterprise value of $556.6 million and expected to provide about $201 million in gross proceeds.
- Fort plans to use the capital to expand its Trust Layer safety platform, including safety, monitoring and cybersecurity software, while pursuing sales growth, channel partnerships and selected acquisitions.
- The company said its technology is deployed across more than 19,500 units and serves more than 600 customers, while existing shareholders are expected to retain about 67% of the combined company when the Nasdaq listing under ticker FROB closes, subject to approvals.
Fort Robotics plans to go public through a merger with Newbury Street II Acquisition Corp. in a deal valuing the robotics safety company at a pro forma enterprise value of $556.6 million.
The transaction is expected to provide about $201 million in gross proceeds, assuming no redemptions by Newbury Street II shareholders, according to Fort. The total includes about $31 million from private and institutional investments made alongside the transaction. Fort expects to receive approximately $182 million in net cash after estimated transaction costs.
The company is backed by investors including Tiger Global, Mark Cuban Companies, Prologis Ventures and Five Eleven Partners. It also recently announced a collaboration with Nvidia through the chipmaker’s Halos for Robotics safety ecosystem.
The combined company will be named Fort Robotics Holdings Inc. and is expected to trade on Nasdaq under the ticker FROB. The transaction is expected to close in the fourth quarter, subject to shareholder, regulatory and other approvals.
Fort indicated it plans to use the proceeds to develop additional safety, monitoring and cybersecurity software, expand sales and channel partnerships and pursue selected acquisitions.
Safety Systems for Physical AI
Fort Robotics founder and CEO Samuel Reeves said physical AI will reshape work across industries, but autonomous machines introduce new types of risk that must be addressed before the technology can scale.
“Fort’s mission is to ‘ensure robots cause no harm’ and we are dedicated to pioneering and building a shared framework for trust that robot manufacturers, integrators, end users, regulators, insurers, governments and any other interested party can rely on,” said Reeves in the announcement. “How we trust physical AI will be one of the defining questions of our time and answering it will be a key enabler that will move these next generation machines from isolated pilot programs to real, scalable adoption.”
Founded in 2018, Fort develops safety technology for autonomous machines and other physical-AI systems. The Pennsylvania-based company grew out of Reeves’ earlier business, Humanistic Robotics, which developed robots for landmine clearing.
Trust Layer
Fort’s main product, called the Trust Layer, is designed to provide common safety controls across machines from different manufacturers operating in shared environments. The company said the platform is machine- and application-agnostic and is protected by 25 patents. According to Fort, the Trust Layer has been certified to Safety Integrity Level 3 under IEC 61508, an international functional-safety standard used for electrical and electronic systems.
The company has more than 600 customers, including Agility Robotics, Google DeepMind, Cobot, Zoox, RIVR, Carnegie Robotics, Textron, Forterra, Genie, Ocado, Oxa and DoorDash. Its technology has been deployed across more than 19,500 units globally, Fort noted.
Fort expanded the platform in May through its acquisition of Mapless AI, adding teleoperation and onboard safety capabilities that allow people to remotely intervene when autonomous systems require assistance.
Company Metrics
The company reported several operating metrics for 2025, inlcuding 62% revenue growth with a 66% gross margin, down from 70% in 2024. Operating expenses increased 19% over the same period, and revenue per employee reached $276,000. No single customer accounted for more than 9% of 2025 revenue, while the number of customers spending six figures annually has grown 3.8 times since 2021. Fort also said its installed base has reached more than 19,500 units, up 3.7 times from 2021.
Fort said customers acquired before 2025 accounted for an estimated 68% of 2025 bookings, while roughly two dozen established enterprise customers increased their average spending by 27% from the prior year.
Existing Fort shareholders will roll all of their equity into the transaction and are expected to own about 67% of the combined company at closing, assuming no shareholder redemptions.
Both companies’ boards have approved the deal, Fort reported. Completion remains subject to conditions including Newbury Street II shareholder approval, completion of the accompanying private financing, SEC review and Nasdaq approval.
