Forgebee

ForgeBee (FORGEBEE, INC) is a Champaign, Illinois company building automated systems for producing honey bees at scale and for delivering pollination services. It combines robotics, controlled laboratory environments and bee biology research to manufacture pollination units intended as a more cost-effective and resource-efficient alternative to traditional full-sized colonies, which are typically reused until failure.

The product roadmap is organized into three pillars that together are intended to form an end-to-end beekeeping and pollination platform. The Queen Monitoring Chamber (also referred to as the Queen Monitoring Cage, or QMC) provides AI-driven queen monitoring and automated husbandry in controlled lab settings, using a proprietary 264-well plate that mimics natural honeycomb; it allows dozens to hundreds of queens, each with a retinue of 50-200 workers, to be housed in a single incubator, with eggs assayed through a removable plate system and harvested year-round. The Automated Bee Factory (ABF) applies robotic rearing to produce bees at scale free from diseases, parasites and pesticides, with on-demand, non-seasonal production and developmental-stage control. The Deployable Pollination Unit (DPU) ships only the bees responsible for pollination rather than whole hives, leaving the queen and her retinue in place, and is designed to improve pollination performance up to 4x relative to traditional hives.

The QMC is covered by US patent 11,412,715 B2, has been featured in 12 peer-reviewed publications and is used by multiple research groups; the ABF is patent pending. Federal registration records list the company as a for-profit corporation and manufacturer of goods incorporated in Delaware, with a 1-4 employee range and revenue under $0.5M reported in an SBIR company registry.

Founding story

ForgeBee was co-founded by bee scientists from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Adam Hamilton, PhD, is Co-Founder and CEO with 15 years researching bees and leading technology development at UIUC, focusing on commercialization, field-trial execution and go-to-market strategy; an SBIR registry entry lists him as Chief Technology Officer. Gene Robinson, PhD, is Co-Founder and CTO, with over 40 years of bee research, membership in the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Medicine, and the 2018 Wolf Prize in Agriculture; he co-led the scientific foundation behind the company's technology.

Business model

ForgeBee develops and sells hardware-based bee husbandry and pollination systems. Its first commercial product, the Queen Monitoring Chamber/Cage, has been sold into government and academic research channels (roughly $50K to date), and the company has entered an R&D agreement with a major agritech company. Later pillars — the Automated Bee Factory and the Deployable Pollination Unit — are aimed at producing and distributing bees to beekeepers and growers, with single-use pollination units positioned as an alternative to reusing full-sized colonies until failure. Development to date has been substantially supported by federal funding, including DARPA and SBIR Phase I awards.

Revenue to date comes from sales of the Queen Monitoring Chamber into government and academic channels (approximately $50K) and a development/R&D agreement with a major agritech company, alongside non-dilutive federal grant and contract funding from DARPA and the USDA SBIR program. Future products (Automated Bee Factory, Deployable Pollination Unit) are aimed at supplying bees and single-use pollination units to beekeepers and growers.

Traction

Reported traction includes $4.5M in DARPA and SBIR Phase I federal funding (including a $174,982 USDA SBIR Phase I award in 2023), roughly $50K in early QMC sales to government and academic buyers, an R&D agreement with a major agritech company, a granted patent and 12 peer-reviewed publications featuring the QMC with use by multiple research groups, participation in Techstars Chicago, the 2026 Edwin Moore Family Agriculture Award, and USDA-backed field trials planned for summer 2026.

Latest developments

The company reports participation in Techstars Chicago, receipt of the 2026 Edwin Moore Family Agriculture Award, approximately $50K in QMC sales plus a development agreement with a major agritech company, and preparation for USDA-backed field trials in summer 2026. Its federal entity registration was last renewed in June 2026.