Eclipse VC's $1.3B Fund Aims to Accelerate 'Physical AI' Innovation

With a focus on the intersection of AI and the physical world, Eclipse VC's new $1.3B fund is poised to drive significant innovation in the sector.

TechCrunch has learned that Eclipse VC has unveiled a $1.3 billion fund, split between an early-stage incubation fund and a growth-focused fund, to back startups that are harnessing the power of artificial intelligence to transform the physical world.

According to partner Jiten Behl, the firm's strategy involves investing across multiple physical sectors, including transportation, energy, infrastructure, compute, and defense. Beyond individual investments, Eclipse is looking to build a web of startups that will collaborate and partner with one another as they scale.

"We have a nice war chest to go and make a serious dent in the market and support the companies in the right way across the life cycle," Behl said.

This approach is designed to foster a sense of community and cooperation among the startups in the portfolio, enabling them to share resources, expertise, and knowledge as they work towards common goals.

Eclipse's interest in the physical AI space is not new, but the firm's commitment to building a web of startups that will collaborate and partner with one another sets it apart from other venture capital firms.

Some of the startups that Eclipse has already invested in, such as Arc, Redwood Materials, Bedrock Robotics, Wayve, and Mind Robotics, demonstrate the firm's focus on the intersection of AI and the physical world.

"Over the last two decades, we've seen multiple waves of innovation," Behl said. "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, in terms of, solving problems in the real, physical world."

The $1.3 billion fund is a significant vote of confidence in the potential of physical AI to drive meaningful change and innovation.

As Behl noted, "We're definitely working on a couple of really cool ideas" and the firm is particularly interested in startups that work across enterprises.

"The next insight is like, how do you connect these sectors? How do you build scale across sectors? And how do you use the data across sectors to build that moat?" he posed, adding data would be used to train smarter AI models to benefit a broader group.

With its new fund, Eclipse VC is well-positioned to play a key role in shaping the future of the physical AI space and driving the development of innovative technologies that will transform industries and improve lives.

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"Scale is so important, and if you can put it together in a way where companies partner early on to build scale, to build proof points, and it just then enables them to go after the next set of demand," Behl said, explaining that portfolio companies will partner with each other directly, but hopefully, also work with each other's partners.

In some cases, those startups will be incubated within the confines of Eclipse. Behl said Eclipse plans to build companies from this new fund. And while he wouldn't give too many hints, he did confirm that process has already started.

• "We're definitely working on a couple of really cool ideas," he said, noting that Eclipse is particularly interested in startups that work across enterprises.

• "The next insight is like, how do you connect these sectors? How do you build scale across sectors? And how do you use the data across sectors to build that moat?" he posed, adding data would be used to train smarter AI models to benefit a broader group.

The potential for physical AI to drive meaningful change and innovation is vast, and Eclipse VC's commitment to building a web of startups that will collaborate and partner with one another sets it apart from other venture capital firms.

As Behl noted, "We have a nice war chest to go and make a serious dent in the market and support the companies in the right way across the life cycle."

With its new fund, Eclipse VC is well-positioned to play a key role in shaping the future of the physical AI space and driving the development of innovative technologies that will transform industries and improve lives.