RPM Ventures

This venture capital firm invests primarily in high-tech startups with Midwest roots, focusing on advanced materials, manufacturing, and technology innovations.

ActiveVenture Capital

Updated: Dec 5, 2025 ·

About

RPM Ventures, founded in 2000, is an early-stage venture capital firm that primarily invests in either: (1) companies with principal customers that are the Midwest Fortune 500 manufacturing base, or (2) startups based on technology developed at one of the Midwest's premier research centers. RPM is first and foremost a high-tech and information-technology venture firm that primarily invests in seed and early-stage companies, including university spinouts. RPM is currently interested in investing in: 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; and Wireless infrastructure. RPM was founded under the name Waypoint Ventures and changed its name to RPM Ventures in 2006 to reflect a strategy focused on leveraging the Midwest's strengths. As Waypoint, the firm invested in 16 companies and raised more than $275 million.

Financial History

Total Raised

N/A

Valuation

N/A

Investments Made

Date	Company	Round	Lead Investor(s)	Co-Investor(s)
Sep 1, 2025	Hubble Network	$70.0M Series B	—	Somesh Surapureddi, Transpose platform, Don Dodge, Jett McCandless, Tuff Yen
Jun 1, 2025	TwinMind	$6.0M Seed	—	Nyca Partners, Streamlined Ventures
Jun 1, 2025	Autonomize AI	$28.0M Series A	—	Asset Management Ventures, Meridian Street Capital, Next Coast Ventures, NextGen Venture Partners, Sandbox Industries, Jonathan Bush
Nov 1, 2024	Firefly Aerospace	$180.0M Series D	—	B Capital Group
Jan 1, 2024	Echo Labs	$8.0M Seed	—	Accel, Alate Partners, Alpine Ventures, Angel Operator Partners (aop), Jana Messerschmidt, Basis Set Ventures, C2 Investment, Craft Ventures, CRV, Goat Capital, Goldcrest Capital, Greycroft, Index Ventures, M13, Madrona Ventures, MATH Venture Partners, Relay Ventures, Sequoia Capital, Spark Capital, Transpose platform, Tusk Venture Partners, Don Dodge, Hiro Tamura, Jett McCandless, John Collison, Ning Sung, Nkechi Iregbulem, Steve Salis, Travis Vanderzanden, Tuff Yen
Oct 1, 2023	ORO Labs	$34.0M Series B	—	Album VC, B Capital Group, Browder Capital, Cloud Apps Capital Partners, Company Capital, Dig Ventures, Felicis Ventures, Greylock, Jackson Square Ventures, January Ventures, Kickstart Fund, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Next47, Norwest Venture Partners, Operator Collective, Saga, Telescope Partners, The General Partnership, Third Point Ventures, Thomson Reuters Ventures, XYZ Venture Capital, Dylan Field, Hanno Renner, Mike Vernal, Peter Kazanjy
Oct 1, 2023	Ounce of Care	$5.0M Seed	—	Flare Capital Partners, Meridian Street Capital, Next Coast Ventures, NextGen Venture Partners, Sandbox Industries, Jonathan Bush
May 1, 2023	Hubble Network	$20.0M Series A	—	Somesh Surapureddi, Angel Operator Partners (aop), Bessemer Venture Partners, Ironspring Ventures, Transpose platform, Jett McCandless, Peter Sonsini, Tuff Yen
Nov 1, 2022	ORO Labs	$25.0M Series A	—	Album VC, B Capital Group, Greylock, Kickstart Fund, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Norwest Venture Partners, Telescope Partners, The General Partnership, XYZ Venture Capital, Dylan Field, Hanno Renner, Mike Vernal
Jul 1, 2022	Fold Health	$6.0M Seed	—	AngelList, Bessemer Venture Partners, DFJ, General Catalyst, Helion Venture Partners, Lightspeed India Partners, Meridian Street Capital, Next Coast Ventures, NextGen Venture Partners, Nexus Venture Partners, Sandbox Industries, Vibe Capital, Akhil Paul, Anand Babu Periasamy, Balaji Srinivasan, Charles Goldman, Dheeraj Pandey, Gaurav Munjal, Kunal Shah, Richard Galanti
Jun 1, 2022	Voxia	$6.0M Seed	—	Meridian Street Capital, Next Coast Ventures, NextGen Venture Partners, Sandbox Industries, Vested Finance, Joey Low, Jonathan Bush, Micha Y. Breakstone
Feb 1, 2022	Haul	$10.0M Seed	—	Anvaya Ventures, B Capital Group, General Catalyst, Meridian Street Capital, Next Coast Ventures, NextGen Venture Partners, Nexus Venture Partners, Sandbox Industries, Jonathan Bush
Jan 1, 2022	First Dollar	$14.0M Series A	—	Atomic, Bullpen Capital, Fifth Wall, F-Prime Capital Partners, Frederique Dame, Lionheart Ventures, Long Journey Ventures, MassMutual Ventures, Meridian Street Capital, Mischief Venture Capital, Moderne Ventures, Next Coast Ventures, NextGen Venture Partners, Nyca Partners, Oak HC/FT, Pareto Holdings, Quiet Capital, Recursive Ventures, Relay Ventures, RRE Ventures, Sandbox Industries, Sequoia Capital, Silicon Valley Data Capital, Silverton Partners, Streamlined Ventures, Unpopular Ventures, Venrock, Webb Investment Network, WestCap, Badr Al-Rumaih, Brian Cruver, Carl Showalter, Ethan Beard, Fidji Simo, John Kobs, Kevin Nazemi, Othman Laraki, Ran Makavy, Sean Glass, Tom Williams
Feb 1, 2021	Haul	$3.0M Seed	—	Meridian Street Capital, Next Coast Ventures, NextGen Venture Partners, Sandbox Industries, Jonathan Bush
Jun 1, 2019	MX Technologies	$100.0M Series B	—	Battery Ventures, Energy Capital Ventures, Openview Venture Partners, Recursive Ventures, Relay Ventures, Sapphire Ventures, Scale Venture Partners, Jared Kopf, Mark Goines
Jul 1, 2018	Mobi.AI	$5.0M Seed	—	Energy Capital Ventures, Fyrefly VC, One Way Ventures, Recursive Ventures, Relay Ventures, rocketship.vc, Streamlined Ventures, Western Technology Investment, Jared Kopf, Larry Braitman, Lawrence Braitman, Mark Goines, Michael Birch
Apr 1, 2017	Blueground	$25.0M Series A	—	Accel, Accomplice VC, AlleyCorp, Endeavor Catalyst, Greylock, NextView Ventures
Oct 1, 2016	Wove	$3.0M Seed	—	Kevin Hartz, Accelerator Ventures, AngelPad, Balderton Capital, Bling Capital, Broadway Angels, Catapult Capital, Comeback Capital, CP Ventures, DNX Ventures, Energy Capital Ventures, EQT Ventures, Felicis Ventures, Fifth Wall, FJ Labs, Flex Capital, Granatus Ventures, Great Oaks Venture Capital, Index Ventures, Javelin Venture Partners, Kain Capital, Lazerow Ventures, Outlander Labs, Partech Ventures, quadratura.it, Racers Edge Investments, Rainfall Ventures, Recursive Ventures, Relay Ventures, Richmond Global Ventures, Saints Capital, SignalFire, Slow Ventures, SNR, Social Starts, Spark Capital, Streamlined Ventures, Tekton Ventures, ThirdLove, TSVC Capital, Unpopular Ventures, WGI Group, Y Combinator, Adam D'Angelo, Ali Kutay, Avid Larizadeh, Brian O'Kelley, Charlie Songhurst, Clark Landry, Ding Zhou, Eric Ries, Eric Stein, Erik Moore, Ethan Beard, Evangelos Simoudis, Jay Weintraub, Jeremy Lizt, Joanna Rees, Joe Zawadzki, John Kobs, Kim Perell, Marek Olszewski, Mark Gerson, Mark Goines, Oskar Hartmann, Ron Hirson, Russell Fradin, Russ Fradin, Scott Faber, Tien Tzuo, Tikhon Bernstam, Travis May, Warren Jenson
Sep 1, 2016	Dia&Co	$20.0M Venture Round	—	Accomplice VC, Afore Capital, AlleyCorp, Bonfire Ventures, BoxGroup, Cyberstarts VC, FirstMark Capital, Forerunner Ventures, Founder Collective, Greylock, i3 Equity Partners, Index Ventures, LearnLaunch Accelerator, NextView Ventures, Nokia Growth Partners, Rainfall Ventures, Sequoia Capital, Speedy Packets Inc., The Finger Group, Zeev Capital, Mike Volpe
Jun 1, 2015	Roam Analytics	$10.0M Series A	—	9Yards Capital, Kevin Hartz, Accel, Acrew Capital, Adverb Ventures, AME Cloud Ventures, Audrey Capital, Benchstrength, Blitzscaling Ventures, Bond, Broadway Angels, C2 Investment, CapitalG, Coatue, Cota Capital, Craft Ventures, Daffy, Dragoneer Investment Group, Energy Capital Ventures, Flex Capital, FPV Fund, General Catalyst, Hardware Club, Heretic Ventures, Incite Ventures, LOI Venture, Pear VC, Quiet Capital, Recursive Ventures, Redpoint Ventures, Relay Ventures, SciFi VC, Seven Seven Six, Sherpalo Ventures, Sound Ventures, South Park Commons, SV Angel, Tribe Capital, Y Combinator, Aaron Levie, Aaron Patzer, Aston Motes, Charlie Cheever, Clara Shih, Dharmesh Shah, Doug Sleeter, Drew Houston, Eric Ries, Hiten Shah, Jared Kopf, Jared Leto, Jeff Seibert, Jeremy Stoppelman, Josh Silverman, Justin Rosenstein, Kris Duggan, Larry Augustin, Louis Beryl, Marco Zappacosta, Matt Mickiewicz, Phil Libin, Sam Altman, Seth Sternberg, Tien Tzuo, Tobias Lutke, Wayne Chang
Jun 1, 2015	Automatic	$24.0M Series B	—	ACME Capital, B Capital Group, Benchmark, DCM, Decibel Partners, Energy Capital Ventures, Greylock, Kindred Ventures, Kleiner Perkins, Origin Ventures, Recursive Ventures, Relay Ventures, Seven Seven Six, Uncork Capital, Winklevoss Capital, Y Combinator, YLEM, Jared Kopf, Jason Wang, Mark Goines, Omar El-Ayat, Rene Reinsberg, Richard Din, Sam Altman, Sean Behr, Shervin Pishevar, Tikhon Bernstam
Apr 1, 2015	Sprig	$45.0M Series B	—	2048 Ventures, Accel, Accomplice VC, AlleyCorp, Brainchild, Entrée Capital Ventures, FJ Labs, Founder Collective, Greylock, Marketplace Capital, NextView Ventures, QueensBridge Venture Partners, Sound Ventures, TCV, Teamworthy Ventures, The Finger Group, Wellington Management, Arie Abecassis, Eli Manning, Rob Glaser, Shane Battier
Mar 1, 2015	MX Technologies	$30.0M Series A	—	DG Incubation, AAF Management Ltd., ACME Capital, Album VC, Chris Hughes, DBL Partners, Ellie Wheeler, Energy Capital Ventures, Ensemble VC, Forerunner Ventures, Founder Collective, Future Africa, Future Perfect Ventures, GSV Acceleration, Jared Kopf, Kickstart Fund, Mark Goines, Pelion Venture Partners, Peterson Ventures, Recursive Ventures, Relay Ventures, Revolution, Rock Ventures, Serena Ventures, Shervin Pishevar, SoftBank Investment Advisers, Spark Capital, Susa Ventures, TLcom Capital, Wiley Cerilli
Nov 1, 2014	Zendrive	$5.0M Venture Round	—	Energy Capital Ventures, Fontinalis Partners, Recursive Ventures, Relay Ventures, Jared Kopf, Mark Goines
May 1, 2014	Kabbage	$50.0M Series D	—	AngelPad, Astanor Ventures, Bessemer Venture Partners, BlueRun Ventures, Bonfire Ventures, Draper Associates, Dreamers VC, ENIAC Ventures, FINTOP Capital, FPV Fund, Green Bay Ventures, Lumia Capital, MassMutual Ventures, Moment Ventures, MTech Capital, Quiet Capital, Saints Capital, Thomvest Ventures, Uncork Capital, Wildcat Ventures, Dino Vendetti, Greg Kidd, Rob Glaser

Financial History

Total Raised

N/A

Valuation

N/A

Leadership Team

Key people at RPM Ventures.

Marc Weiser

Managing Partner

Leadership Team

Key people at RPM Ventures.

Marc Weiser

Managing Partner

Deep Dive

High-Level Overview

RPM Ventures is an early-stage venture capital firm based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, that primarily invests in high-tech startups with a focus on B2B and B2B2C enterprise solutions, online marketplaces, and automotive IT, including connected car and mobility technologies. Their mission centers on partnering deeply with entrepreneurs to accelerate revolutionary businesses, leveraging a relationship-driven, whole-team approach where the partners—former entrepreneurs themselves—provide strategic expertise and support. With approximately $200 million in assets under management, RPM Ventures targets sectors such as advanced materials, manufacturing, automotive technology, enterprise software, financial services, insurance, and real estate, aiming to foster innovation and growth in startups rooted in the Midwest tech ecosystem[1][3][4].

Origin Story

Founded in 2000, RPM Ventures was established by three entrepreneur partners who sought to create the kind of venture capital firm they wished had existed when they were founders. This origin shapes their founder-centric philosophy and hands-on involvement. Over nearly 25 years, RPM has evolved its focus to specialize in tech-enabled B2B and B2B2C solutions, particularly emphasizing automotive IT and mobility, reflecting the growing importance of these sectors in the Midwest and beyond. The firm’s leadership includes Managing Directors Tony Grover, Marc Weiser, and Adam Boyden, who bring extensive entrepreneurial and investment experience to the table[1][3][5].

Core Differentiators

Unique Investment Model: RPM’s partners are also their largest investors, aligning incentives closely with entrepreneurs and enabling a long-term, founder-friendly approach.
Network Strength: Deep industry relationships in mobility, automotive, enterprise software, and financial services provide portfolio companies with strategic connections and market insights.
Track Record: Nearly two decades of investing in transformative B2B and B2B2C startups with a focus on sectors where they can add significant value.
Operating Support: RPM offers hands-on operational guidance, leveraging the partners’ entrepreneurial backgrounds to support growth, strategy, and scaling challenges[1][3].

Role in the Broader Tech Landscape

RPM Ventures rides the wave of increasing digitization and innovation in traditional industries such as automotive, manufacturing, and enterprise services. The timing is critical as connected car technologies, mobility solutions, and advanced manufacturing are rapidly evolving, driven by market demand for smarter, more efficient, and sustainable technologies. RPM’s Midwest roots position it uniquely to capitalize on and nurture the region’s growing tech ecosystem, which benefits from proximity to automotive hubs and manufacturing centers. By focusing on B2B and B2B2C models, RPM influences the broader ecosystem by enabling startups that drive digital transformation in established industries, fostering economic growth and technological advancement in the region[1][3][4].

Quick Take & Future Outlook

Looking ahead, RPM Ventures is poised to continue expanding its influence in sectors like automotive IT and mobility, which are expected to grow with trends such as autonomous vehicles, electrification, and smart infrastructure. The firm’s commitment to deep founder partnerships and sector expertise will likely help it identify and scale startups that address complex industry challenges. As digital transformation accelerates in manufacturing and enterprise services, RPM’s focus on tech-enabled B2B solutions positions it well to capitalize on emerging opportunities. Their evolving fund strategy, including recent fundraises, suggests a readiness to increase investment pace and impact, reinforcing their role as a key player in Midwest and national venture capital landscapes[1][3][5].

Sources

High-Level Overview

Origin Story

Core Differentiators

Unique Investment Model: RPM’s partners are also their largest investors, aligning incentives closely with entrepreneurs and enabling a long-term, founder-friendly approach.
Network Strength: Deep industry relationships in mobility, automotive, enterprise software, and financial services provide portfolio companies with strategic connections and market insights.
Track Record: Nearly two decades of investing in transformative B2B and B2B2C startups with a focus on sectors where they can add significant value.
Operating Support: RPM offers hands-on operational guidance, leveraging the partners’ entrepreneurial backgrounds to support growth, strategy, and scaling challenges[1][3].