Vaughn Crowe says manufacturing and industrials have reached a venture moment, and the capital is following the signal.
Crowe, who co-founded NVP Capital with Dan Borok, said his view is rooted in Newark, an old American industrial city where he grew up near the airport and the port. He said that background made him think early about where value could be created in the physical economy.
NVP has been investing in manufacturing and industrials since its start in 2020. Crowe said the category has changed because COVID put a spotlight on supply chain, travel, logistics, energy, power, shipping and receiving. He also said geopolitical challenges around aerospace and defense pushed the government to support mission-critical industries so they could become more self-reliant.
'We were seeing where the U.S. economy was affected at scale,' Crowe said, adding that the moment made those sectors look critical rather than niche.
He also pointed to artificial intelligence as an accelerant. Crowe said the opportunity sits 'at the intersection of where AI meets the physical world,' affecting space, robotics and manufacturing. He said the industry is 'at the precipice of something truly revolutionary in the physical world.'
NVP’s portfolio includes Vulcan Elements, Reaxiomatic, Laborup, Outlast Power, Human Archive, Haptica Robotics, Class8, Optimal Dynamics and Upwell. Crowe said exits will likely come through a mix of IPOs and mergers and acquisitions. He said some legacy manufacturers could even become roll-up plays, while public markets and commercial markets could open more doors for venture-like returns.
The firm closed its second fund at $80 million in 2025. It is now competing in a space that has gotten hotter, including a rare earths startup, Vulcan Elements, which is now valued at about $2 billion.
A separate set of deal announcements in the same newsletter showed the same pattern: Celero Communication raised $275 million in Series C funding, Forus raised $150 million in Series C, TAR raised $120 million in Series A, Maven Robotics raised $100 million in Series A, and Latitude raised $35 million in Series A.
The market has already voted. After years in which industrial America was treated like a legacy story, venture capital is now treating it like a growth market. That shift matters because it pushes money toward hard assets, production, logistics and the kinds of businesses that make an economy more resilient.
Capital rewards clear rules and real demand. If AI keeps pulling venture dollars toward the physical world, the winners will be the firms that can build, ship and scale — not just talk about innovation from a distance.
