Anuj Kapur, director of corporate development and venture capital at CarMax, is one of our top 50 Emerging Leaders in corporate venturing for 2026.
Anuj Kapur joined the CVC unit of US-based used-car retailer CarMax seven years ago without any experience in venturing and has since helped grow the division into a fully-fledged investment arm.
Kapur developed an affinity for startups while working in investment banking, where he focused on small and medium-sized businesses founded by entrepreneurs. He joined CarMax’s corporate ventures team in 2019, a year after the unit was launched.
The only other member of the team at the time also had no experience in CVC, so both taught themselves, attending the corporate venturing programme at the Haas School of Business at University of California, Berkeley, as well as GCV Institute courses.
“Our seed investments tend to be smaller, are able to move quickly and are flexible. They can roll up their sleeves and say, we have a somewhat blank canvas. What would you like us to build?”
“Several years ago, we finally reached what I would view as maturity for our group, where we feel like we are well established, we have a really great operating model and we are executing on our mandate,” says Kapur.
The expanded team of four invests from CarMax’s balance sheet, with an annual investment allocation. It does three to four direct investments a year and also invests as a limited partner in VC funds.
The venturing team initially invested in later-stage startups, but soon added seed and series A when it found that early-stage founders were better at building technologies with CarMax business units than later-stage founders who had already found product-market fit. “Our seed investments tend to be smaller, are able to move quickly and are flexible. They can roll up their sleeves and say, we have a somewhat blank canvas. What would you like us to build?”
The venturing team holds roundtables with business unit leaders each year to tease out their biggest challenges. This feedback informs its investments. The team has invested in insurtech, fintech, cleantech and is keen on AI-enabled computer vision and robotics, which can sift through CarMax’s vast fixed operations.
The Emerging Leaders are mid-career corporate venture professionals who are making an outstanding contribution to their teams and the industry.
See the full list of Emerging Leaders here.
