Forgepoint Raises $9.8M to Automate Manufacturing Quotes With AI

Forgepoint, a New York-based startup developing artificial intelligence software for manufacturing sales teams, has raised $9.8 million in seed funding to automate factory quoting workflows. The round was led by Primary Venture Partners and a16z speedrun, with participation from angel investors associated with OpenAI, Brex, Vercel, and SoFi.

The company is developing Frank, an AI-powered inside sales representative that helps manufacturers process requests for quotation (RFQs), prepare pricing proposals, and follow up with prospective customers. The funding will support product development, deeper integrations with existing manufacturing systems, and team expansion.

Forgepoint is targeting a specific operational challenge in manufacturing: factories can often produce a component faster than their sales teams can calculate its price and send a quote to the buyer.

How Forgepoint's AI Assistant Frank Works

Manufacturing quotes frequently involve more than calculating a price. Buyers may submit requests through email with multiple attachments, incomplete specifications, and technical drawings that require review. Estimators and sales teams must gather missing information, identify comparable historical jobs, calculate costs, apply margins, obtain engineering approval, and enter the final quote into business software.

These tasks can create delays that stretch from hours to days or even weeks, according to Forgepoint.

Frank is designed to automate much of this administrative work while keeping people responsible for important technical and commercial decisions.

The software receives an email address on the manufacturer's domain and learns the company's operating procedures, pricing rules, and approval requirements. When an RFQ arrives, Frank reviews the request and its attachments, identifies missing information, and communicates with the buyer to clarify requirements.

It then builds a proposed price using the manufacturer's own cost model, surfaces similar previous jobs where relevant, and routes the draft to the appropriate reviewer. Once a human approves the quote, Frank prepares the final document using the company's template, sends it to the customer, and records the correspondence.

This approach is intended to reduce repetitive work without removing the manufacturer's control over pricing, engineering decisions, or customer commitments.

Manufacturing Workflows Across Different Industries

Forgepoint says Frank can support several manufacturing environments, including metal service centres, foundries, injection moulding, automation, fabrication, stamping, and machining.

The workflow varies depending on the manufacturer's operations.

At a metal service centre, Frank can match material lists and cut lengths against product catalogues, apply customer-specific pricing, and check inventory. These steps help the sales team assemble a quote using the information already maintained by the business.

At a foundry, the process may involve reviewing part files and technical drawings, identifying missing specifications, requesting additional information from the buyer, and preparing an initial quote for an engineer to review.

Although these examples involve different production processes, the underlying objective remains the same: automate repetitive administrative work surrounding a manufacturing order while preserving human oversight.

Forgepoint is not positioning Frank as a replacement for engineers, estimators, or salespeople. Instead, the company wants its AI assistant to handle the time-consuming preparation and follow-up work so experienced employees can concentrate on technical assessments, pricing decisions, and customer relationships.

Founders With Experience in Manufacturing and Enterprise Software

Forgepoint was founded by Jack Strauss, its chief executive officer, and Alex Pareto, its chief technology officer.

Strauss previously worked at Northrop Grumman, Bain & Company's advanced manufacturing practice, and aerospace systems integrator Xwing, which was later acquired by Joby Aviation.

Pareto previously led engineering for Brex's Spend Management organisation. He also founded Demeanor, a Y Combinator-backed startup that was later acquired by NTWRK.

In early 2025, the founders spent several months visiting manufacturing plants across the American Midwest. They observed employees at work to understand where operational delays occurred and which tasks consumed the most time.

Their research helped identify quotation preparation as a potential area for automation. Manufacturing teams often have the technical expertise and production capacity to fulfil orders, but responding to customer requests can involve numerous manual steps and handoffs.

The founders built Frank around the processes they observed, with the goal of integrating AI into existing operations rather than requiring manufacturers to replace their established systems.

Early Traction and Customer Feedback

Forgepoint says its Frank product reached seven-figure annual recurring revenue within six months of launch. This is a company-reported milestone; the article does not provide a detailed breakdown of customer numbers, contract values, or revenue retention.

The company also points to customer feedback as an indication of how the software can affect day-to-day work.

Chas Aday, founder and chief revenue officer of SIP Manufacturing, said the company previously prepared quotes manually and struggled to keep up with demand. With Frank, he said the system can draft a quote that he can review and approve in approximately two minutes.

According to Aday, the change allows him to spend less time entering data and more time serving customers.

The example illustrates the specific productivity improvement Forgepoint is pursuing: reducing the administrative time required to prepare a quote while leaving final approval with the manufacturer.

However, the longer-term test will be whether the results remain consistent across different types of manufacturing businesses, each with its own pricing structures, production requirements, and approval processes.

$9.8 Million Seed Funding to Support Expansion

Primary Venture Partners and a16z speedrun led Forgepoint's $9.8 million seed round. Angel investors associated with OpenAI, Brex, Vercel, and SoFi also participated.

Forgepoint plans to use the funding to expand Frank's capabilities, strengthen integrations with the software manufacturers already use, and grow its team.

These integrations matter because quotation workflows often depend on information spread across email, inventory catalogues, historical orders, pricing models, and business management systems. Connecting these sources can help an AI assistant prepare quotes using a manufacturer's existing processes and data.

The company will also need to ensure that proposed prices, technical details, and customer communications are handled reliably. Manufacturing quotations can carry significant commercial consequences, making accuracy and approval controls essential.

Forgepoint's human-review approach gives manufacturers a way to check proposed quotes before they reach customers. How effectively the product balances automation with reliable oversight will be central to its ability to expand.

Competition in AI-Powered Manufacturing and Sales

Forgepoint is entering a growing market for AI software that automates industrial and commercial workflows. Several startups are addressing related problems, although their products and business models differ.

London-based CloudNC raised $20 million on September 9, 2026, in a round led by Nimble Ventures, bringing its reported total funding to $128 million. Its software helps machine shops program computer-controlled machinery, and the company planned to release Quote Agent, a tool for machining estimates, later in 2026.

Isembard, also based in London, raised £37.5 million in Series A funding in March 2026, led by Union Square Ventures. It operates its own and franchised factories and uses software to support factory operations, including quoting.

Berlin-based Plato raised $14.5 million in seed funding led by Atomico in February 2026. Its software focuses on automating sales, quoting, and business-software workflows for wholesale distributors.

These companies illustrate the wider interest in applying AI to industrial processes, but they do not all compete directly with Forgepoint. Their approaches span machine programming, factory operations, and distributor workflows, while Forgepoint is concentrating on the quotation process inside manufacturing sales teams.

What Comes Next for Forgepoint?

Forgepoint's immediate opportunity is to demonstrate that Frank can consistently reduce the time manufacturers spend preparing quotes while maintaining the accuracy required for commercially binding offers.

The company has reported a seven-figure annual recurring revenue milestone within six months of launch, giving it an early indicator of demand. Its next phase will involve expanding the product, integrating with more existing systems, and supporting manufacturers with different operational requirements.

The critical question is how much administrative work Frank can remove before human review becomes the main bottleneck. Manufacturers must still verify prices, technical specifications, production feasibility, and commercial terms before accepting an order.

If Forgepoint can reliably handle the preparation and coordination surrounding those decisions, it could help manufacturing businesses respond to customers faster without sacrificing control over their quoting process.

For now, its strategy is focused on one specific but consequential part of industrial operations: helping factories turn incoming requests into approved customer quotes more efficiently.