Mechanical Orchard

Forward Deployed Engineering

Mechanical Orchard, founded in 2022 by Matthew Work and Rob Mee, applies an AI-native, forward-deployed engineering model specifically to mainframe and legacy system modernization, raising $74 million across a 2024 Series A led by Emergence Capital and a Series B led by GV. Its Imogen platform reverse-engineers a legacy system's behavior component by component, rebuilding each piece in a modern cloud environment with a proven fallback path before the legacy version retires, and the firm serves Global 2000 clients including Omni Logistics across banking, insurance, retail, and the public sector.

Mechanical Orchard's forward deployed model applies to one category of problem, legacy modernization, rather than the broader set of use cases a generalist FDE firm covers. Enterprises with a specific mainframe or legacy system get a firm built entirely around that constraint; enterprises with a wider AI agenda will need it alongside another provider.

Assessed at #9 in Top 10 Forward Deployed Engineering (FDE) Service Providers.

Where this firm appears

• Top 10 forward deployed engineering (FDE) service providers Ranking · 23 September 2026
• Microsoft commits 2.5 billion dollars to embedded engineering News · 2 July 2026
• AWS puts 1 billion dollars behind forward deployed engineers News · 30 June 2026

Sources

1. Top 10 Forward Deployed Engineering (FDE) Service Providers
2. Mechanical Orchard, official site