Advanced ManufacturingSupply ChainIndustrial AIClimate & EnergyConstruction Tech
Not financial advice. This page summarises Eclipse's publicly available investment thesis, fund disclosures and portfolio history for research purposes only. Not affiliated with or endorsed by Eclipse. Partner attribution and portfolio data are sourced from public records and may be incomplete or out of date. Do your own due diligence before acting on anything here.
01 // THE THESIS
What Eclipse Actually Believes
FOUNDING BELIEF
Atoms must become as programmable as bits
Eclipse was founded by Greg Reichow, Tesla's former VP of Production, on the thesis that manufacturing and the physical economy had been overlooked by software investors for 30 years. The same transformation software brought to information industries will come to physical industries — just 15 years later.
INSIDER KNOWLEDGE
The founding team has been inside factories
Greg Reichow built Tesla's Model S production line. That inside view — understanding why factories are hard, why supply chain is complex, why robotics breaks in real environments — gives Eclipse the ability to evaluate industrial companies that most VCs cannot.
MANUFACTURING RENAISSANCE
Reshoring is a 20-year secular trend
The combination of US-China tensions, COVID supply chain disruption, CHIPS Act subsidies and IRA manufacturing credits has made domestic manufacturing a policy priority. Eclipse's investments are positioned to benefit from the decade of reshoring investment now underway.
ADDITIVE MANUFACTURING
Printing atoms will be as transformative as printing information
Eclipse backed Desktop Metal on the thesis that industrial 3D printing — particularly in metals — would transform how parts are designed and manufactured. Additive enables geometries and supply chain models that weren't previously possible.
SUPPLY CHAIN AS SOFTWARE
The trillion-dollar supply chain runs on fax machines
Logistics, demand forecasting, procurement — the supply chain that moves physical goods runs on processes designed before the internet. Eclipse backs companies applying AI to make this system as responsive as software supply chains.
CLIMATE AS TAILWIND
Decarbonising industry is a manufacturing problem
Industrial processes account for ~30% of global emissions and are the hardest to decarbonise. Eclipse sees climate tech and industrial tech as the same bet: the technologies that make manufacturing programmable will also make it clean.
Key Partners: Greg Reichow · Duncan Turner · Lior Susan
02 // SECTOR FOCUS
Where They Invest
| Sector | Focus | Notable Positions |
|---|---|---|
| Advanced Manufacturing | Digital factories, additive manufacturing, process automation | Desktop Metal (NYSE: DM) — metal 3D printing |
| Supply Chain | Demand sensing, logistics orchestration, freight management | Samsara (NYSE: IOT) — flagship supply chain AI company |
| Industrial AI | Computer vision, predictive maintenance, quality control | Machina Labs — AI for sheet metal forming |
| Climate & Energy | Grid software, industrial decarbonisation, clean manufacturing | Growing focus as IRA creates market pull |
| Construction Tech | Prefabrication, project management, building materials | Multiple stealth investments |
03 // PORTFOLIO HIGHLIGHTS
Notable Investments
Sourced from public records, Crunchbase and fund disclosures. Private valuations are estimates and change. Not a complete portfolio — see the fund's website for the current list.
| Company | Sector | Status / Ticker | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Desktop Metal | Manufacturing | NYSE: DM — metal 3D printing | The flagship additive manufacturing investment. Metal printing at industrial scale — challenged by commercialisation pace. |
| Machina Labs | Manufacturing | Private — AI sheet metal forming | AI-powered incremental sheet forming — one take on the programmable atoms thesis. |
| Standard AI | Retail/Supply Chain | Private — autonomous retail | Computer vision for autonomous checkout and retail intelligence. |
| Fathom | Manufacturing | Private — on-demand manufacturing | Instant-quote manufacturing for custom parts — the AWS model applied to manufacturing. |
| Samsara | Supply Chain | NYSE: IOT — connected operations | The most successful Eclipse investment by market cap. IoT + AI for fleet management and industrial operations. |
04 // RESEARCH & PUBLICATIONS
Annual Reports, Essays & Primary Sources
📄
BLOG
Eclipse Blog
Essays on hard tech investing, manufacturing innovation and the industrial transformation thesis. Greg Reichow's essays are among the most insightful primary sources in deep tech VC.
Open ↗
05 // HOW TO READ ECLIPSE
Strengths, Blind Spots & the Honest Assessment
Manufacturing expertise is irreplaceable
Greg Reichow built Tesla's production capacity. Lior Susan ran Tesla's energy business. These aren't investors who took factory tours — they've managed production lines and debugged supply chain failures at scale.
Samsara is a landmark outcome
Samsara's (NYSE: IOT) market cap of $20B+ validates the connected operations thesis. Fleet management, industrial IoT and operational AI for physical businesses is now a proven large commercial market.
Desktop Metal is a cautionary case
Desktop Metal went public via SPAC in 2020 at $2.5B valuation and has seen a dramatic decline since. The additive manufacturing thesis is directionally correct; commercial adoption has been slower than projected.
AUM limits influence at growth stage
At ~$1B AUM, Eclipse can lead early-stage rounds but often can't lead larger growth rounds. In capital-intensive industries, that limitation means they sometimes lose board influence when companies face their hardest scaling challenges.
How to use Eclipse for your hub
Eclipse's connected operations and manufacturing thesis directly underpins the critical minerals and energy storage supply chains your hub tracks.
06 // ECL VS YOUR HUB
Where Their Thesis Meets Your Sector Dashboards
| Eclipse Theme | Your Dashboard | Agreement / Tension |
|---|---|---|
| Samsara (connected operations) | Critical Minerals | Connected operations for mining and extraction — fleet management, equipment monitoring and logistics are addressable by Samsara in the critical minerals supply chain. |
| Desktop Metal (additive manufacturing) | Robotics | Additive manufacturing and robotics are converging — programmable matter and automated assembly are the same underlying trend. |
| Supply chain intelligence | Critical Minerals | Supply chain visibility is critical for the minerals supply chain which is notoriously opaque. |
07 // WEEKLY INTELLIGENCE
Latest from Eclipse
PIPELINE COMING
Weekly Fund Intelligence
New portfolio investments, partner blog posts, LP letters, conference appearances and public statements from Eclipse — updated weekly by the AI research pipeline. Activate the scheduled task to populate this section.