FORT Robotics said it is building the trust layer for physical AI. Source: FORT Robotics
As robots become more autonomous and enter more spaces with people, the need for a trustworthy safety technology stack has grown. FORT Robotics Inc. today said it is merging with Newbury Street II Acquisition Corp., a special-purpose acquisition company, or SPAC.
“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,” stated Samuel Reeves, founder and CEO of FORT Robotics.
“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,” he asserted.
Trust Layer provides for interoperability and safety
“Safety is often an afterthought,” Amod Damle, head of product at FORT Robotics, told The Robot Report. “It’s looked at as an inhibitor to innovation. Our controllers give peace of mind and are at the highest safety compliance level.”
Founded in 2018, FORT Robotics grew out of Reeves’s previous company Humanistic Robotics, which built robots to clear landmines.
Philadelphia-based FORT Robotics said its Trust Layer allows systems from different manufacturers to operate safely around humans and in shared environments. The platform is backed by 25 patents and has been certified to meet Safety Integrity Level 3 per IEC 61508. FORT Chief Technology Officer Nathan Bivans has joined the U.S. Technical Advisory Group to ISO TC 200 for safety standards development.
“We’re not just looking at products in isolation, but also as layers,” said Damle. “There’s the hardware and firmware for safety compliance, and the second layer includes cloud intelligence, telemetry, AI insights, and co-pilots. The third layer consists of ecosystems and interfaces — APIs and tablets. Being forward thinking in AI is table stakes.”
In January 2026, FORT Robotics launched Wireless E-Stop Pro, a safety-certified wearable device designed to prevent accidents and maximize uptime across modern worksites. The company also released FORT 2.61, which added software plans, API access, more granular control options, and enhanced safety behaviors.
In May, FORT expanded The Trust Layer through its acquisition of Mapless AI, a full-stack teleoperation company. It added remote human-in-the-loop control and onboard active safety to FORT’s existing platform.
In June, FORT Robotics announced a strategic collaboration with NVIDIA, following an “outside-in” safety approach as part of the Halos for Robotics ecosystem
The company said its 600 customers include Agility, Google DeepMind, Cobot, Zoox, RIVR, Carnegie Robotics, Textron, Forterra, Genie, Ocado, Oxa, and DoorDash. It cited users across industries including humanoid robotics, warehousing, transportation, manufacturing, construction, agriculture, mining, energy, and defense.
“No matter the use case, if safety annoys workers, they won’t use it, which will slow down the workflow,” Damle acknowledged. “If functional safety is foundational and transparent, there’s an opportunity for the whole ecosystem to grow.”
FORT Robotics demonstrates strong growth
FORT Robotics demonstrated strong growth leading up to its SPAC deal by staying focused on its customers, said Damle.
“As physical AI moves into core industrial infrastructure, safety is paramount,” added Griffin Schroeder, a partner at Tiger Global. “FORT has built a critical, machine-agnostic trust layer that enables enterprise autonomy to scale safely.”
FORT Robotics noted that its 2025 revenue compounded at a 62% year-over-year growth rate, including 91% growth among customers spending more than $100,000 annually. The company also said it maintained standalone gross margins of 70% in 2024 and 66% in 2025.
While its revenue grew 62% in 2025, FORT said its operating expenses grew at only 19%, and 2025 revenue per employee was $276,000, demonstrating its cost management. The company added that it has grown and de-risked its six-figure customer base by 3.8x since 2021, with no single customer representing more than 9% of 2025 revenue.
FORT has deployed more than 19,500 units globally, and it said about two-dozen mature enterprise accounts grew by 27% in per-account spending year-over-year in 2025.
FORT and Advantech partnered in March to integrate functional safety to the MIC-735 edge AI system, powered by the NVIDIA IGX Thor platform. Source: FORT Robotics
Combined company to be valued at over $500 million
Newbury Street II said it plans to list the combined company, to be named FORT Robotics Holdings Inc., on Nasdaq at a valuation of $556.6 million — with a pre-money equity value of $500 million. FORT Robotics claimed that the transaction will create “the first publicly traded company dedicated principally to safe and scalable deployment of physical AI, as a universal safety layer across the robotics industry.”
“The robotics revolution is at an inflection point, and we believe FORT’s universal layer of trust can accelerate widespread adoption,” said Thomas Bushey, CEO of Newbury Street II. “We look forward to supporting Samuel and the team as they advance FORT’s horizontal platform for physical AI — as a public company, we believe FORT is well positioned to extend its leadership and create long-term shareholder value.”
The transaction is expected to deliver approximately $201 million in gross proceeds. This includes about $31 million of common equity in the form of both PIPE (private investment in public equity) and non-redemption agreement (NRA) investment from existing and new institutional investors, including Tiger Global, Prologis Ventures, and Mark Cuban.
Newbury Street II said it expects the merger to add $182 million in net cash to the balance sheet after estimated transaction costs, assuming no redemptions by Newbury Street II’s public shareholders.
FORT Robotics plans to use the proceeds to accelerate development of its next-generation safety intelligence, observability, and cybersecurity software. It also said it will scale global go-to-market and channel partner efforts and support “targeted, high-synergy tuck-in” merger and acquisition opportunities.
Existing FORT shareholders will roll 100% of their equity into the business combination, retaining an estimated 67% majority ownership stake. The boards of directors of both FORT and Newbury Street II have each unanimously approved the deal, subject to shareholder and regulatory approval. They said they expect the merger to close in the fourth quarter of 2026.
FORT said its post-closing board of directors will include Sally Miller, global CIO of DHL Supply Chain; Jennifer Vescio, former executive at Uber; Vijay Kumar, dean of engineering at the University of Pennsylvania; and Karl Iagnemma, CEO at Vecna Robotics.
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