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Eclipse

Eclipse is a Palo Alto-based growth-stage industrial deep-tech VC founded 2015 by Lior Susan, with ~$4B AUM. Fund IV $1.2B (2023 vintage).

Stage Seed → Series B
Ticket $5.0M - $25.0M
Quantum focus Photonics, Quantum Computing HW
Geography North America

Investment thesis

Eclipse is a Palo Alto-based growth-stage industrial deep-tech VC founded 2015 by Lior Susan, with ~$4B AUM. Fund IV $1.2B (2023 vintage). Invests Series A through growth across industrial tech, robotics, manufacturing, semiconductors, energy and quantum. Cheques $5-50M.

Quantum portfolio: early growth-stage backer of Rigetti Computing (superconducting, public via SPAC 2022), Flex Logix (programmable AI compute, quantum-adjacent), and Lightmatter (photonic AI compute, photonic-quantum adjacent). Three bets clustered on alternative computing architectures.

Value-add: industrial scaling expertise; deep manufacturing and supply-chain networks relevant for hardware-intensive quantum founders transitioning from lab to production.

Not a quantum specialist by mandate, but Rigetti is a meaningful early position. Broader conviction on compute architectural diversification rather than quantum per se.

Anti-thesis

The patterns that trigger a fast no with this fund.

  1. Eclipse's thesis is digitizing the physical economy (manufacturing, logistics, supply chain), where quantum's near-term applications are speculative, classical optimization (Gurobi, NVIDIA cuOpt) already solves 95% of industrial problems
  2. Lior Susan has emphasized companies with hardware-software integration AND immediate revenue, quantum companies typically have neither at Eclipse's Series A / B entry stage
  3. Portfolio synergy logic (Bright Machines, Owl AI, Augury) doesn't compose with quantum, cross-sell to industrial customers requires deployable systems, not 5-year R&D contracts
  4. Eclipse's LP base (industrial strategics, family offices) underwrites factory-floor ROI, quantum requires patient capital with different return profiles than Eclipse markets
  5. Limited public quantum activity suggests no partner-level conviction, one-off bets without follow-on muscle disadvantage the company in subsequent rounds

Notable quantum portfolio

Full portfolio →
Rigetti ComputingLightmatter

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