Formant
San Francisco, US · Founded 2017 · 5 known investors
Find your way into Formant
274 people in our graph share verified history with the Formant team — schools, employers, funds. One of them is your warm intro.
Ken Chenaultunlockedknows James Turnshek · together at IBM Watson (overlapped)
×6knows the team · via IBM Watson
×5knows the team · via University of Pittsburgh
Formant Metaphysics is an AI-powered incident management and ticketing system designed for physical operations in industrial settings. It consolidates institutional knowledge, manages alarms, and enables predictive maintenance for enterprise fleets using goal-oriented agents and generative AI.
Founders & leadership
Formant was founded in 2017 by Jeff Linnell and James Turnshek.
JL

Jeff LinnellinFounderFormer Bot & Dolly founder and Google Robotics product lead; started Formant in 2017 after leaving Google.
JT

James TurnshekinCofounder / Chief ArchitectCo-founder and chief architect named on his LinkedIn profile; launch copy said Formant was founded by former Google and Savioke roboticists.
Investors · 5
Competitors · 8
by search overlapFirefox,48 shared keywordsMozilla is a global community organization that develops and maintains open-source internet infrastructure, including the Firefox web browser and Thunderbird email client, while advocating for internet openness, privacy, and user control. The organization also invests in responsible technology startups and creates open-source AI tools for developers.
Netezza47 shared keywordsIBM is a global technology company whose business spans enterprise software (including Red Hat, HashiCorp, and Confluent), IT infrastructure such as mainframes, servers, and storage, and IT consulting services. The company is also investing heavily in quantum computing and AI-based enterprise offerings, including its Lightwell open-source software security clearinghouse and the Anderon quantum wafer foundry.
Botify44 shared keywordsBotify provides an AI-powered platform that helps brands improve their visibility in organic search and across AI search engines through technical SEO, automation, and agentic workflows. The company serves e-commerce and enterprise brands globally with solutions for search visibility, content optimization, and performance measurement.
Branch44 shared keywordsBranch is an AI-powered mobile measurement partner (MMP) and omnichannel linking platform that helps brands measure marketing impact and guide customers across apps, web, email, paid media, social, and connected TV. The platform enables organizations to attribute user acquisitions and conversions across channels, optimize campaign performance, and preserve customer context throughout their journey.
SEMrush43 shared keywordsSemrush provides competitive intelligence, SEO, keyword research, and content generation tools for growth marketers and small teams to improve visibility and optimize their acquisition funnel across Google and AI search.
Claravine40 shared keywordsClaravine provides a SaaS platform that enforces consistent data standards and taxonomy across digital marketing operations for enterprise brands and agencies. The platform ensures clean, reliable data capture and governance across analytics, automation, and marketing technology stacks.
Square 9 Softworks33 shared keywordsSquare 9 provides generative AI-powered document data extraction that converts unstructured content from documents, forms, and images into structured, searchable information for enterprise customers. The platform enables automated data processing with SOC 2 and HIPAA compliance to integrate into downstream business systems.
CodeSignal, Inc.29 shared keywordsCodeSignal provides an educational ebook guide for talent teams on implementing AI hiring tools, covering readiness assessment, solution selection, and compliant usage practices.
Companies competing with Formant for the same Google search keywords, organic and paid, via search-intersection analysis.
In the news
Frequently asked questions
- What does Formant do?
- Formant Metaphysics is an AI-powered incident management and ticketing system designed for physical operations in industrial settings. It consolidates institutional knowledge, manages alarms, and enables predictive maintenance for enterprise fleets using goal-oriented agents and generative AI.
- Who founded Formant?
- Formant was founded by Jeff Linnell, James Turnshek in 2017.
- Who are Formant's investors?
- Formant's investors include BMW i Ventures, PICUS CAPITAL, Thursday Ventures, Intel Capital, SignalFire.
- Where is Formant headquartered?
- Formant is headquartered in San Francisco, US.








