This article was accepted into the corpus but its outbound wikilinks were never NER-processed — typical at the deepest BFS hop or when the run's entity cap was reached. No expansion funnel to show.
| Eclipse Ventures | |
|---|---|
| Name | Eclipse Ventures |
| Type | Private |
| Industry | Venture capital |
| Founded | 2015 |
| Founders | Eric Migicovsky, Tolu Ajayi, Peter Hebert |
| Headquarters | San Francisco, California |
| Notable investments | Carbon, Desktop Metal, Planetary Resources, Zymergen |
Eclipse Ventures is a private venture capital firm based in San Francisco that invests in deep-technology and industrial innovation companies. The firm focuses on early- to growth-stage ventures applying engineering, materials science, robotics, and manufacturing to transform legacy industries. Its founders brought experience from consumer hardware, software platforms, and industrial entrepreneurship to create a portfolio spanning advanced materials, automation, and energy-related technologies.
Founded in 2015 by Eric Migicovsky, Tolu Ajayi, and Peter Hebert, the firm emerged amid a surge of interest in hardware startups led by figures associated with Pebble (watch), Index Ventures, and Y Combinator. Early activity coincided with broader trends reflected in firms such as Sequoia Capital and Andreessen Horowitz expanding into hardtech, while contemporaneous investors like Khosla Ventures and Lux Capital increased capital for robotics and materials science. Throughout the late 2010s and early 2020s the firm participated in funding rounds alongside corporate venture arms such as GV (company), Intel Capital, and Samsung NEXT, aligning with industrial digitization waves traced to initiatives like Industry 4.0 and projects led by organizations including MIT and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.
The firm's investment thesis emphasizes long-duration, capital-intensive bets in companies reimagining physical infrastructure, drawing parallels with investment frameworks used by Bill Gates-backed climate funds and technology-focused philanthropies like Breakthrough Energy Ventures. Target sectors include advanced manufacturing similar to companies funded by Kleiner Perkins and NEA (New Enterprise Associates), robotics firms in the vein of Boston Dynamics, materials-science companies akin to Sila Nanotechnologies, and energy-technology ventures comparable to Tesla, Inc. and NIO Inc.. The strategy frequently involves participating in Series A and later rounds, coordinating with strategic investors such as Bessemer Venture Partners, Citi Ventures, and industrial conglomerates like 3M and Siemens. The firm also engages with research institutions such as Stanford University and Caltech to access translational technologies and talent pipelines.
The firm’s portfolio has included companies across advanced materials, manufacturing automation, and climate technology. Notable investments have involved manufacturers disrupting traditional casting and metalwork similar to Desktop Metal, synthetic-biology startups in the mold of Zymergen, and carbon-removal or carbon-utilization ventures akin to Carbon (company). The portfolio aligns with hardware-focused investors that backed firms like Planetary Resources and Impossible Foods, and has intersected with startups leveraging robotics and automation comparable to Kindred (robotics) and Rethink Robotics. Co-investors have ranged from Bain Capital Ventures to corporate venture groups including Toyota AI Ventures and Schneider Electric Ventures.
Leadership at the firm reflects founders' backgrounds in product development, venture investing, and operations. The founding partners brought prior affiliations with entities such as BlackBerry Limited (via product leadership), Index Ventures (via investing), and technology startups that engaged with accelerators like Y Combinator. The firm’s operating model incorporates in-house teams for talent recruiting, engineering support, and manufacturing partnerships, resembling operational roles common at firms like General Catalyst and Benchmark (venture capital). Advisory networks include former executives and academics from institutions such as Harvard University, University of California, Berkeley, and corporations like General Electric and Boeing to guide industrial scaling.
The firm has realized several liquidity events and secondary sales alongside public listings and acquisitions. Some portfolio companies achieved exits through mergers and acquisitions reminiscent of buyouts by Fortive or strategic purchases by Honeywell International Inc., while others pursued initial public offerings comparable to exits from Desktop Metal and Peloton Interactive. Performance metrics have been evaluated against benchmarks set by late-stage venture funds and crossover investors like Tiger Global Management and SoftBank Vision Fund, with returns influenced by the capital intensity and time-to-scale typical of deep-tech investments.
As with many venture investors active in capital-intensive sectors, the firm and several peer-backed portfolio companies have navigated legal disputes and regulatory scrutiny related to intellectual property, employment practices, and securities filings. Similar controversies have involved firms in the portfolio spectrum such as Theranos-adjacent debates over scientific validation, Zymergen-era scrutiny on financial disclosures, and litigation instances paralleling claims seen at Juul Labs around governance. The firm has managed these matters through standard venture governance structures, participation in board oversight, and engagement with external counsel experienced in matters before bodies like the Securities and Exchange Commission and state courts.
Category:Venture capital firms in the United States