Ex-Apple engineers raise $33M fund to back manufacturing startups
What's the deal? Two former Apple executives, Simon Lancaster and Sabrina Paseman, have raised $33 million for Omni Ventures, a new firm backing pre-seed manufacturing-tech startups. It will write checks of $700,000 to $1 million into companies building AI, robotics, and automation tools for factories, the pair told Business Insider.
Who's backing it? The fund's investors include Allocator OneDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, which supports emerging fund managers, plus other backers from 14 countries.
What's the endgame? Omni frames manufacturing as the layer beneath strategically important industries. "It is the layer underneath every strategically important industry, including semiconductors, defense, pharmaceuticals, aerospace, robotics, and energy," Paseman said, pointing to the shared stack of software, sensors, AI, and robots that make factories run better.
The firm has already backed UptoolDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, an AI quoting platform for machine shops; Cargo Robotics, which builds robotics tools for industrial logistics; and DystrDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, an AI platform for hardware and engineering teams. Khosla Ventures, Eclipse, Kleiner Perkins, and Bessemer Venture Partners have invested in some of the same companies.
Why now? The fund launches as investors turn toward the physical world, driven by AI's move into machines, falling hardware costs, labor shortages, and pressure to reshore supply chains.
Lancaster and Paseman, who both left Apple in 2019 after 12 and six years respectively, began developing the thesis when venture money still flowed mostly into software. They started angel investing together and ran an incubator for hardware startups.
The pair say sentiment has shifted sharply. "Three years ago, when we started developing this thesis, everyone thought manufacturing was too small," Paseman said. Lancaster added that even last year, prospective backers said the fund was "a little niche" — "and now absolutely no one is saying that."
What could go wrong? Most investments will focus on the US, though the pair see the same technology modernizing manufacturing abroad, a thesis they call "global dynamism." They back technical but commercially minded founders, often with five to 15 years of manufacturing experience.
The signal: The fund is less a lone contrarian bet than another data point in a broader shift. Specialist firms and corporate arms are increasingly treating advanced manufacturing as an investable technology vertical rather than old industry — and the Apple pedigree may help Omni draw quality deal flow.
Read more: Business Insider · Manufacturing USA · Global Corporate Venturing
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