Eclipse Labs appoints new CEO after investors ‘urge’ founder to resign

• Eclipse Labs replaced Neel Somani with Vijay Chetty as the firm’s new CEO
• At press time, no legal charges had been brought against Somani

Eclipse Labs has replaced its founder and former CEO Neel Soman with Vijay Chetty, following the spate of “sexual harassment” allegations levelled at him. Last week, the founder of the Ethereum [ETH] L2 scaling solution had denied the allegations, stating that he would remain an active CEO, but reduce his ‘public role’ at the firm. 

However, on Wednesday, Eclipse announced the promotion of Chetty, the firm’s Chief Growth Officer, to CEO. Part of the firm’s statement read, 

“Operational update on behalf of Eclipse Labs: “Effective immediately, Vijay Chetty will be named CEO of Eclipse Labs, taking over for Neel Somani, who is departing.”

Possible investors’ influence on Eclipse Labs’ reshuffle

The latest changes seem to have been influenced by Eclipse’s investors. In fact, one of the investors, Hack VC, acknowledged that along with other investors, they ‘urged’ Somani to resign after these allegations came to light.

“Since learning about the allegations, we worked hard with other investors and the team to correct the situation, including urging Neel to resign, and we are pleased to see that happen.” 

Hack VC and Placeholder were among Eclipse Labs’ initial investors, contributing $50 million in March 2024. Other investors joined in the later funding rounds to support Eclipse Labs, the development team behind the upcoming launch of Eclipse Mainnet. 

Surprisingly, another investor, Dragon Capital, claimed it didn’t invest in Eclipse Labs after reportedly learning of rumours associated with “sexual assault.”

Thus, there could have been investor intervention to save the first Ethereum scaling solution that uses Solana Virtual Machine (SVM) from negative publicity. Part of the Hack VC statement read, 

“We do not tolerate sexual harassment or misconduct in any form at Hack VC, and we hold our founders and portfolio companies to the same high standards.”

The market will now shift its focus to the Eclipse Mainnet launch under the new leadership. Eclipse Labs has scheduled the launch for Q2.