RPM is first and foremost a high-tech and information-technology venture firm that primarily invests in seed and early-stage companies. As with our investments, we believe that focusing on specific areas allows us to become industry leaders in our niche. As such, we focus on investing in two types of companies:
- Companies selling to the manufacturing or automotive sector. This, however, encompasses a broad range of technology and products, with the common elements being the concentration of these customers in the Midwest and the relative similarity in their underlying business needs.
- Companies established based on novel technologies developed at Midwest research institutions: We recognize the Midwest has some of the world's leading research institutions, deriving from some of the world's most renowned universities and R&D units at large corporations.
This focus is the basis for how we define our core strategy of national specialist and regional generalist. However, we also invest in businesses where our background and experience are highly relevant in allowing us to provide significant added value to the company.
Regardless of sector, we believe that true innovations can transform business processes and create long-term distinctive value. The best markets for these opportunities often are very fast-growing emerging markets, where we can invest in a company that can achieve dominance of its niche. In addition, we are interested in new products and services that address very large existing markets, where companies help customers develop better business processes to outpace their competitors.
We believe the manufacturing industry's current economic challenges present special opportunities for technology-oriented entrepreneurs. The industry's difficulties are a driving force behind the need to commercialize technologies that address the critical needs of the manufacturing arenas.
The technology areas in which we invest adhere to the traditional definition of high tech and IT: materials, software, systems and semiconductors. The following are some examples of the areas of investment interest we see today:
- Advanced materials processing
- Business services and process optimization
- Data discovery and analytics
- Manufacturing quality, warranty and costing systems
- New-media delivery and infrastructure
- Personalization of the Web
- The real-time enterprise
- Retail automotive software solutions
- Semiconductor digital and analog design
- Software automation and design and QA tools
- Web-application optimization and security
- Wireless infrastructure
