RPM, based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and founded in 2000, is an early-stage venture capital firm with a unique investing strategy and core platform that deliver repeatable, consistent value to our portfolio companies and our investors. RPM has two primary types of investments:
- Companies with principal customers that are the Midwest Fortune 500 manufacturing base.
- Startups based on technology developed at one of the Midwest’s premier research centers.
In making these the investing focus of the fund, we take advantage of one of the globe's largest IT customer bases and a world-class research base that produces proprietary and revolutionary technologies. In doing so, we leverage what we are the best in the world at in "our own back yard."
The strategy has been built on a core platform of strong relationships with university researchers, top-tier VC firms and executives in the Midwest manufacturing base that, combined, result in an ability to add distinctive and strategic value to the portfolio. The foundation and structure of this platform has been built and proven over the last six years through Waypoint Ventures, the managers' preceding fund. Through Waypoint, the managers invested in 16 companies that concurrent with or subsequent to our investment raised more than $275 million.
