Dive Brief:
- Eclipse Capital has raised $1.3 billion across two funds aimed at “reinventing” physical industries by supporting startups focused on physical artificial intelligence, robotics and other advanced technologies and innovations.
- The fundraising round — which includes $720 million in Eclipse Fund VI and $591 million in Early Growth Fund III — was led by “top-tier” university endowments and foundations, Eclipse partner Greg Reichow said in an interview. He declined to disclose specific names or industry affiliations.
- Eclipse, based in Palo Alto, California, has led fundraising efforts for startups in manufacturing, sustainable energy, automation and more since it was founded in 2015. The latest funding round brings its total assets under management to $10 billion, the venture capital firm said.
Dive Insight:
As industries aim to reshore manufacturing to the United States and strengthen supply chain resilience, venture capital firms like Eclipse are looking for startups that can support these transitions.
“What we're usually looking for is, what are new, innovative approaches to manufacturing that kind of change the equation of the economics of that manufacturing, such that it actually does make a lot of sense to do it in the U.S.,” said Reichow, a former Tesla executive who led global manufacturing, automation and supply chain operations.
In January, Eclipse led a $220 million fundraising round for VulcanForms, which is developing a digital manufacturing platform for metal additives to enhance domestic production. This was something that Tesla had been looking into for a long time, Reichow said, but “nobody had really cracked the code” of how to do this type of manufacturing at scale.
“Our target is companies in the physical industries,” he said. “That doesn't necessarily mean it has to be hardware, but it has to be something that is focused on bringing innovation to those industries.”
The main Eclipse fund is dedicated to startups that go through the venture firm’s incubation program called Venture Equity. It is also focused on spinning out smaller firms from larger companies, such as Mind Robotics from Rivian, and traditional seed and series A funding, Reichow said.
The early growth fund allows Eclipse to “double down” on companies that are at a place where the technical risk is gone, but they are not showing strong revenue growth yet, he said. Examples are later series B or C funding rounds.
Recently, Eclipse has supported companies like autonomous aircraft maker Reliable Robotics and solar firm Tandem PV, as well as firms operating in the biopharmaceuticals and home construction sectors.
Eclipse is focused on leading a smaller number of big investment rounds instead of a lot of smaller ones, and it is looking for startups with executives who have previous leadership experience in the industries they’re working in, Reichow said.
“We're not trying to take this fund and invest in a company and flip it in two or three years,” he said. “This is trying to build for the long term here.”
