A new venture capital firm founded by former Apple engineers has secured $33 million to target a sector long ignored by Silicon Valley: American manufacturing. Omni Ventures, led by Simon Lancaster and Sabrina Paseman, will write checks between $700,000 and $1 million into pre-seed startups focused on the digitization of factory floors, a move that arrives as geopolitical pressures force a reevaluation of domestic supply chains.
Beyond Software
Lancaster and Paseman, who collectively spent 18 years at Apple bringing products from prototype to production, argue that the software-centric investment boom of the last decade missed the physical infrastructure that undergirds national power. "Manufacturing is not just one industry," Paseman stated. "It is the layer underneath every strategically important industry, including semiconductors, defense, pharmaceuticals, aerospace, robotics, and energy."
The fund’s thesis is built on deploying AI, robotics, and sensor technology directly into production environments, a concept Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang has termed "physical AI." Omni has already backed startups like Uptool, an AI quoting platform, and Cargo Robotics, which builds industrial logistics tools. The firm notes that Khosla Ventures, Eclipse, and Bessemer Venture Partners have co-invested in its portfolio companies.
Strategic Imperative
The launch of Omni Ventures coincides with a stark shift in global capital. Venture investment in robotics and physical AI has surged from $4 billion in 2019 to over $26 billion in 2025, according to PitchBook data. Lancaster cited a change in tone from institutional backers. "Last year, they'd say, 'This is cool, but it's a little niche,'" he said. "Now absolutely no one is saying that."
Paseman framed the opportunity in terms of national competition, noting that major funds are now racing to find the "next Taiwan" in manufacturing. Omni’s focus will remain primarily on U.S.-based firms, a direct alignment with economic nationalist policies that prioritize domestic production capacity over offshoring. The fund's backers include Allocator One and investors from 14 countries.
"Three years ago, everyone thought manufacturing was too small. But now all of these bigger funds are saying, 'Oh shoot, this is actually going to change the next decades of power globally.'"
Lancaster and Paseman, who began angel investing together after leaving Apple in 2019, view their lack of traditional venture capital backgrounds as an asset. Their thesis, which they term "global dynamism," explicitly targets the hardware and automation layer that supports American industrial sovereignty, a sector that directly impacts the wages and job security of the domestic workforce.