Forgepoint puts $9.8M behind the quote desk, not the factory floor

Forgepoint is building AI software for the people who decide what a shop should charge, pulling a customer's request, the shop's cost model and the approval process into a single workflow. The New York startup announced a $9.8M seed round on October 14, 2026, led by Primary Venture Partners and a16z speedrun.

The product is Frank, an AI inside sales representative. According to Forgepoint's product documentation, it reads emails and attached PDFs, spreadsheets and CAD files, extracts the information a quote requires and contacts the customer about missing specifications. It prepares a bill of materials and pricing against the manufacturer's own model, including labor, materials, margins and minimums. A human then reviews and approves the quote before it goes out; after approval, Frank can deliver the document, manage follow-up and maintain a record of the exchange.

The company says the capital will support adoption by more manufacturers, deeper integrations with their existing systems and team expansion. Angel investors associated with OpenAI, Brex, Vercel and SoFi also participated. The announcement identifies those employers as affiliations of the angels and does not establish corporate investments by the four companies.

The financing puts a round inside a practical industrial question: how much additional business can a capable factory consider with the people already working in its office? Forgepoint's opportunity sits in the work required to answer a buyer, where a drawing, a missing specification and a pricing exception can each demand someone else's attention. Primary's Zach Fredericks, whose current firm profile identifies him as Principal, Industrials, describes the company's opportunity in terms of the work manufacturing teams can quote, plan and manage.

Forgepoint reports reaching seven-figure annual recurring revenue within six months of Frank's launch, along with hundreds of weekly users, an average 30% increase in monthly quote throughput and a reduction of more than 55% in time-to-quote. Those are company-reported figures, and the announcement publishes no cohort breakdown or measurement methodology. Quote throughput is also distinct from production output or booked revenue, since a prepared quote still needs a buyer to accept it and a shop to deliver the work.

Co-founders Jack Strauss, CEO, and Alex Pareto, CTO, bring a mix of industrial and software experience. Strauss worked at Northrop Grumman, Bain & Company's Advanced Manufacturing practice and Xwing; Pareto previously led engineering for Brex's Spend Management organization. The pair spent months visiting Midwest plants in early 2025, observing employees and studying how the work moved.

The approach helps explain why quoting is a revealing starting market for industrial AI: a request crosses sales, technical knowledge and business records before it becomes an order. Related DevCuration reporting on CADDi's manufacturing decision platform and Rapta's manufacturing intelligence places Forgepoint in a wider industrial software conversation, though those products address different operating tasks.