The Underwood Typewriter Company was founded in 1895 by John T. Underwood (1857-1937). He began as a maker of typewriter ribbon and carbon paper, supplying them to Remington, which was the leading typewriter manufacturer in the late nineteenth century. When Remington decided to start making typewriter supplies, Underwood decided to start making typewriters. He teamed up with inventor Franz X. Wagner (1837-1907) and purchased his patents in 1895 creating the Underwood Typewriter Company. The "No. 5" model was so successful it outsold all of its competitors combined for the first two decades of the twentieth century. In 1927 it merged with Elliot-Fischer. Olivetti bought out Underwood in 1959. The Underwood name last appeared on a portable typewriter model in Spain in the 1980s.

The Royal Typewriter Company was founded in 1904 and began operating in 1906 in Brooklyn. By 1908 it had transferred to Hartford, Connecticut. Its early success was in standard desktop models. It did not come out with its first portable until 1926, at least a decade later then the competition. It was also hugely successful. Starting in 1969, Royal went through a series of mergers with Litton, Volkswagen, and finally Olivetti before finally becoming a privately held American company again in 2004. It is now known as Royal Consumer Information Products, Inc. and manufactures a diversified line of business machines.