GCV Powerlist 2017: Rimas Kapeskas

Rimas Kapeskas joined postal delivery company UPS’s corporate venturing unit, UPS Strategic Enterprise Fund, as managing director in 2011, 14 years after its launch in 1997.

He has over the past year been celebrating the first portfolio exit through a flotation. Radio-frequency identification company Impinj listed on the Nasdaq sotck exchange last autumn.

Impinj raised $67.2m when it priced its initial public offering at $14 a share, which was at the top of its $12 to $14 range. Founded in 2000, Impinj produces technology that uses integrated-circuit tags to identify, track and locate items such as clothing, medical supplies, auto parts, driving licences, food and luggage, and then to send the data to businesses that manage, sell or transport them.

But Kapeskas is looking for the next generation of winners. UPS lead both the Optoro and Deliv investments. Crowdsourced same day delivery network Deliv raised $28m in February last year while reverse logistics platform Optoro raised $30m in December.

Although he leads a small team, having expanded into Europe last year, he has spent time working inside the company, with advanced testing with portfolio companies, including CyPhy Works for drone deliveries and Peloton Technologies in connected vehicles. Last month, Peloton raised $60m.

In an interview for 2012’s GCV Powerlist, Kapeskas said: “I have been with UPS for a number of years [since 1984]. I previously served as director of our product research and development group, where we develop new products in-house. It has been an interesting transition moving over to the corporate venturing side. You go through many of the same steps trying to launch a new product internally as startups go through. You need to go shopping for internal support, resources and funding. There are a lot of parallels.”

Kapeskas gained his MBA from Emory University and his BSc from University of Connecticut.