Omni Ventures is a San Jose, California-based pre-seed venture firm founded by Simon Lancaster and Sabrina Paseman, both former Apple product and manufacturing engineers with over 20 years of combined experience inside global supply chains. The firm is the first dedicated venture fund for manufacturing technology, writing first institutional checks into software, AI, and robotics companies transforming how everything is designed, built, and operated. The founders built a 32,000-person industry network of manufacturing engineers and executives that functions as the firm's proprietary deal-flow engine.
Omni backs pre-seed founders building software, AI, and automation for the factory floor, targeting rounds of $2 million or less.
Core areas include AI quoting engines for machine shops, mechanical design copilots, CAD automation, tribal knowledge capture, predictive maintenance, production line intelligence, component selection AI, logistics IoT, and industrial facilities management.
The firm explicitly targets capital-light, software-wrapped models rather than capital-intensive hardware plays.
Omni Ventures Fund I closed oversubscribed at $33 million in July 2026. Allocator One served as anchor LP; Foxconn Technology Co. joined as a strategic LP, providing portfolio companies with a potential channel into the world's largest contract manufacturer.
The broader LP base spans investors across 14 countries.
The fund has already backed ten companies, with follow-on participation from Khosla Ventures, Eclipse, Bessemer Venture Partners, and Kleiner Perkins across the portfolio.
Leadership
Simon Lancaster is Co-Founder and General Partner, a University of Waterloo graduate with 15+ years across Apple, Google, and BlackBerry shipping hardware at global scale.
Sabrina Paseman is Co-Founder and General Partner, a Cornell University graduate and multi-time founder who spent roughly five years as a product design engineer at Apple, carrying industrial designs from first prototype through mass production.
Investment Strategy
Omni writes $700K–$1M initial checks at pre-seed, targeting rounds of approximately $2 million or less,. a segment most institutional funds have abandoned as too small.
The firm leads or anchors first rounds in manufacturing technology founders, leveraging its 32,000-person industry network for deal sourcing, customer introductions, and commercial validation.
The Foxconn LP relationship is the firm's most significant structural advantage: a pilot inside Foxconn represents the highest-value commercial reference in industrial tech.
Omni also co-authored the book Unlocking Alpha: The Rise of Niche VC alongside the fund build.
Notable Investments
Simon Lancaster — Co-Founder & General Partner
Sabrina Paseman — Co-Founder & General Partner
sabrina@omnivl.com
Firas Khalifeh — Venture Partner
firas@tripolar.industries
United States
