Forgepoint raises USD $9.8 million for quoting software

Forgepoint has raised USD $9.8 million in seed funding for its manufacturing quoting software. The round was led by Primary Venture Partners and a16z Speedrun.

The New York company sells an artificial intelligence tool called Frank, designed to help manufacturers manage requests for quotation and turn them into purchase orders. The software works across email, documents, pricing rules and manufacturers' existing business systems.

Forgepoint says it reached seven-figure annual recurring revenue within six months of launching Frank, and that hundreds of engineers, estimators and sales staff now use the product each week.

Customers have increased monthly quote throughput by an average of 30% while cutting time to quote by more than 55%, according to the company. That matters in a sector where manufacturers are often under pressure to respond within a day, even when requests arrive with multiple attachments and incomplete specifications.

Manual bottleneck

Quoting remains labour-intensive in many factories. An estimator may need to review an email, examine technical drawings, request missing details, search for similar past jobs, build a cost model, secure engineering approval, enter pricing into an ERP system, generate a quote document, update a CRM system and manage customer follow-up.

Forgepoint argues that many of those steps are administrative rather than technical. Frank is meant to handle that office work while leaving commercial and engineering decisions to human staff.

The software is configured around each manufacturer's pricing model, operating procedures and approval requirements. According to Forgepoint, it can read incoming emails and attachments, flag missing information, contact buyers for clarification, prepare draft quotes, route them for review and send final documents after approval.

Use cases vary across industrial businesses. At a metal service centre, Frank can match material lists and cut lengths against a catalogue, apply customer-specific pricing and check inventory. At a foundry, it can review part files, gather missing drawing specifications and prepare an initial draft for an engineer.

Founders' focus

Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder Jack Strauss previously worked in industrial roles at Northrop Grumman, Bain & Company's Advanced Manufacturing practice and aerospace systems integrator Xwing. He founded Forgepoint with Alex Pareto, who had been Head of Engineering for Brex's Spend Management organisation.

Before building the business, the pair visited manufacturing plants in the US Midwest and studied office processes. Pareto said the goal was to understand the day-to-day reality of the job before trying to automate it.

"In those early days, we simply wanted to learn, as if we had been hired to do the job ourselves. We knew that before we could solve the problem, we needed to understand it deeply," said Alex Pareto, Co-Founder and CTO, Forgepoint.

Strauss said the company focused first on inside sales because the speed of responding to requests for quotation directly affects how much business a manufacturer can win.

"We kept meeting manufacturers with strong demand and capable teams, but their best people were spending hours on administrative work. Speed is a competitive advantage, so we built Frank to keep jobs moving and free skilled operators to focus on the decisions only they can make," said Jack Strauss, Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder, Forgepoint.

Customer response

One customer cited by Forgepoint is SIP Manufacturing. The business said the software has changed the time needed to assemble and approve quotes.

"Before Forgepoint, we were building quotes by hand and barely keeping up. Now, Frank drafts and I can approve it in two minutes. I'm spending less time entering data and more time serving my customers," said Chas Aday, Founder and CRO, SIP Manufacturing.

Investors say the appeal lies in a part of manufacturing that has seen less automation than the factory floor. Administrative systems around pricing, approvals and customer communication often still rely on inboxes, spreadsheets and older software.

That gap creates room for tools that can help manufacturers handle more business without increasing headcount at the same rate, according to Primary Venture Partners.

"A manufacturer's ability to grow depends on how much work its team can quote, plan, and manage," said Zach Fredericks, Principal, Primary Venture Partners. "Forgepoint is giving those teams more capacity, starting with quoting. We backed Jack and Alex because they understand the details of that work and have a clear ambition to bring the same approach across the entire manufacturing back office."