Forgepoint raises $9.8M seed to automate manufacturing quotes with AI agent Frank
Manufacturing-quoting automation startup Forgepoint announced on October 14 a $9.8 million seed round co-led by Primary Venture Partners and a16z Speedrun, Andreessen Horowitz's accelerator, with angel investors from OpenAI, Brex, Vercel and SoFi participating. Its agent, Frank, acts as an "inside sales rep": it plugs into a manufacturer's existing systems and pricing rules, reads incoming RFQs and attachments, calculates a quote from the company's cost models, emails follow-ups when details are missing and escalates technical questions to human engineers when needed. Forgepoint says early adopters saw an average 30% increase in monthly quote throughput and a 55% reduction in time to produce a quote, and it cites a 2025 Gardner Intelligence study finding that more than 50% of manufacturers expect a vendor response within 24 hours.
It targets the administrative back office that slows manufacturers down, a pragmatic test of whether AI agents can win adoption beyond software-native businesses.