FORT Robotics plans a SPAC merger at a reported $557M enterprise value

Why it matters

FORT is asking public investors to value the safety and control layer for autonomous machines at $557 million in enterprise value without disclosing revenue, margins or the cash it expects from the merger.

FORT Robotics, the Philadelphia robotics safety company founded by Samuel Reeves, plans to go public through a merger with Newbury Street II Acquisition Corp., a blank-check company. The combined business would have an enterprise value of about $557 million, Bloomberg reported on August 18.

The merged company would be named FORT Robotics Holdings Inc. FORT describes it as the first public company principally dedicated to the safe deployment of "physical AI," a company claim that packages an old industrial problem in the AI market's preferred language.

Reeves founded FORT in 2018 after about a decade working on robotics for landmine clearance. His earlier company, Humanistic Robotics, developed heavy-equipment-based systems intended to detect and clear landmines without exposing people to danger. The underlying problem has remained consistent: keeping powerful machines under human control when their operators are far away or software is making decisions for them.

FORT markets hardware and software for machine safety, cybersecurity, remote control and fleet supervision. Its product catalog includes wireless emergency-stop devices, remote controls, vehicle and endpoint safety controllers, and FORT Manager software. The company sells to robot builders, fleet operators and industrial customers across warehousing, construction, agriculture, manufacturing, transportation, mining, defense and delivery.

Bloomberg reported that FORT has more than 600 customers, including Ocado. The company's August 2025 funding announcement reported more than 500 customers, approximately 12,000 deployed units and 27 patents. In May 2026, FORT said it had deployed more than 19,000 units. The deployment counts are dated company figures rather than independently audited totals.

The available materials do not disclose FORT's current revenue, annual recurring revenue, growth rate, cash balance, pricing or headcount. They also do not establish how many of its 600-plus customers are paying customers. Those gaps matter because the proposed enterprise value depends on financial performance that has yet to become visible to prospective public shareholders.

From landmines to the factory floor

Reeves' earlier company, Humanistic Robotics, developed autonomous heavy-equipment systems intended to detect and clear landmines without exposing people to danger, according to FORT's company biography. FORT's stated origin thesis grew out of safety problems encountered with those machines: autonomous systems need a trusted control, communications and security layer before they can operate around people at scale.

Reeves built FORT around safety and control problems he encountered in landmine-clearance robotics before "physical AI" became the preferred label. He founded the company in 2018 to sell safety and communications technology across industries, according to Groundbreakers Magazine. Founding Chief Technology Officer Nathan Bivans had also worked at Humanistic Robotics, where he developed wireless safety protocols for landmine-clearance equipment, after roles at Motorola and Apple, according to FORT's company biography.

Mapless adds human supervision

Reeves widened FORT's product scope before the proposed listing. On May 27, 2026, FORT acquired Mapless AI, an autonomy-supervision company, adding remote human-in-the-loop teleoperation and onboard active-safety technology. FORT said Mapless's team and technology would be integrated into its Trust Platform. Financial terms were not disclosed.

The acquisition gives FORT technology for supervising autonomous vehicles while they are operating, extending its role beyond emergency controls and secure communications.

Nvidia introduced Halos for Robotics on June 22, 2026, describing a safety system spanning computing hardware, operating software, sensors, safety applications and certification support. Nvidia named FORT among the companies developing functional-safety agents for its outside-in safety framework. Nvidia's Halos platform could give FORT another route to robot builders while also placing the companies in partial competition at the platform level.

The competitive field extends beyond Nvidia. CB Insights lists DriveU.auto, 3Laws and Kingdom Technologies among FORT's alternatives. Adjacent platforms address other parts of robot operations: Formant sells fleet telemetry and operational tools, InOrbit offers incident management, analytics and remote intervention, and Viam provides hardware-independent development and management software. FORT's pitch centers on combining functional safety, cybersecurity, secure communications and machine control in one platform.

$60.5 million before the SPAC

FORT says it has raised $60.5 million in private funding, including an $18.9 million Series B extension announced in August 2025. Tiger Global led that extension. Returning investors included Prime Movers Lab, Mark Cuban Companies, FundersClub, Creative Ventures, GRIDS Capital and Ahoy Capital. Neman Ventures, Mana Ventures, Gaingels and Ryuu Co. joined as new investors. Cuban is an investor, not an operating executive at FORT.

The extension followed a $25 million Series B in 2022, also led by Tiger Global, which brought FORT's total funding at the time to $41.5 million. Prime Movers Lab had led a $13 million financing in 2021. None of those announcements disclosed a private-company valuation.

A SPAC with a clock

Newbury Street II has until November 4, 2026, to complete a business combination unless shareholders approve an extension, according to the SPAC's SEC filing. The deadline gives the SPAC less than three months from Bloomberg's report to close a transaction or obtain more time.

Publicly available transaction terms remain limited. Bloomberg reported an enterprise value of about $557 million, while its headline characterized the deal as valuing FORT near $500 million. The report and company materials reviewed for this article did not establish an expected closing date, transaction equity value, expected cash proceeds, post-merger ownership percentages, financing conditions or a trading ticker. Definitive merger documents would also need to specify shareholder-approval conditions and how redemptions affect the cash delivered to FORT.

The proposed merger gives Reeves a route to finance FORT's expansion as manufacturers deploy more autonomous machines in workplaces. It also asks public investors to value a safety-and-control supplier without disclosed revenue, margins or cash generation. Reeves built FORT around a control problem he encountered before "physical AI" became a fundraising category. Newbury Street II now proposes attaching a $557 million enterprise value to that head start.