Production costs comparable to those of China

Production costs comparable to China’s": the industrial bet on the French robot

Forx designs and manufactures autonomous robots in Meaux and Clermont-Ferrand. By leveraging its end-to-end mastery of the technology and a subscription-based model, the startup aims to "democratize" robotization for SMEs—first in France, and very soon across Europe.

"Forx was born from a crazy idea," says CEO Yves Cazard. In 2019, the entrepreneur—who was already heading Yahtec, a company specializing in gas boilers and heat pumps with a workforce of around thirty—wanted to purchase robots to automate pallet transport at his 15,000-square-meter factory in Meaux (Seine-et-Marne). "But it was expensive, and existing robot suppliers weren't interested in SMEs like ours," explains the 61-year-old executive. {Read more]