VC Eclipse has a new $1.3B fund to back — and build — ‘physical AI’ startups
It takes just a skim of Eclipse’s recent investments to see where this venture firm’s interests lie — and where it is headed. The Palo Alto-based VC, which saw its median deal size explode over the past several years, has poured an increasing amount of money into the “physical world.” Its deals include electric boat developer Arc, buzzy battery recycling and material firm Redwood Materials, self-driving construction vehicle startup Bedrock Robotics, autonomous vehicle tech company Wayve, and industrial robotics lab Mind Robotics. With $1.3 billion in fresh capital — which is split between a $591 million early-stage incubation fund and one more oriented toward growth startups — Eclipse is zeroing in on what partner Jiten Behl describes as the next big technological era. “Over the last two decades, we’ve seen multiple waves of innovation,” Behl said, listing the internet, mobile cloud, and social media eras. “This is the first time where stuff is going to move from our screens into the physical world; we’re going to see advanced levels of intelligence, along with actual actions, …


