James Scapa
Founder, chairman and CEO of Altair Engineering, the simulation-software company he built from a three-person Detroit consulting shop in 1985 into a public company sold to Siemens for $10.6 billion in 2025.
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- Country
- United States
- Known for
- Founder, chairman and CEO of Altair Engineering (1985–2025)
- Education
- BS mechanical engineering, Columbia University (1978); MBA, University of Michigan
- Earlier career
- Ford Motor Company from 1978; engineering consultant to the automotive industry
- Altair IPO
- November 1, 2017; shares priced at $13, raised $156 million, closed day one at $18.31
- Siemens sale
- $113 per share, about $10.6 billion equity value announced October 2024; completed March 26, 2025
- Post-Altair
- Co-founder, Escape Investment Management (family office)
Overview
James R. Scapa is the founder, chairman and former CEO of Altair Engineering, the simulation-software company he started in 1985 with two fellow engineering consultants and led for forty years — through 32 years as a private company, a celebrated 2017 IPO, and a sale to Siemens that valued the company at about $10.6 billion (Columbia Engineering; TechCrunch). He is not connected to Scapa Group plc, a separate company that manufactures bonding solutions and adhesive components (SBWire).
Scapa grew up in New York, the child of Greek immigrants, and was the first American citizen in his family (SBN). He earned a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from Columbia University and an MBA from the University of Michigan (Columbia Engineering). He began his career at Ford Motor Company in 1978 and worked as an engineering consultant to the automotive industry before founding Altair (SBN).
From a Detroit consultancy to a software company
Altair began in 1985 as the result of a chance meeting of three engineering consultants on a project at a General Motors facility: Scapa, George Christ and Mark Kistner became its founders (IndustryWeek). The early business was consulting in the then-new field of computer-aided engineering, done for carmakers, and the company stayed close to Detroit’s auto industry for years (SBN). Three years after founding, a sister company, Altair Computing, was set up to market software, and its early products — HyperMesh, introduced in 1990, and the OptiStruct topology-optimization tool — turned work first developed for consulting clients into commercial products (IndustryWeek).
Scapa ran the company with a habit he described openly: reorganizing it roughly every year, on the theory that a growing business has to be reformulated to stay adaptable (SBN). By the early 2010s the approach had produced a company with more than 1,800 employees and offices in 19 countries, revenue topping $237 million in 2012, and more than 3,000 clients across automotive, aerospace, government and defense, and consumer products (SBN).
The IPO, the acquisition spree, and the Siemens sale
Altair spent 32 years as a private company before going public on November 1, 2017 (TechCrunch). The offering priced at $13 per share, raised $156 million, and closed its first day at $18.31, up more than 40 percent (TechCrunch). The company was unusual among software debutants: it had never been venture-backed, though it had once taken private-equity funding from General Atlantic, which Scapa bought out in 2013, and it was already profitable, with $313.2 million in prior-year revenue and $10.2 million in net income (TechCrunch). Its software, built on technology spun out of NASA, counted Blue Origin, SpaceX and Facebook among its customers (TechCrunch).
The IPO gave Scapa capital for an acquisition strategy that became his signature — about thirty companies bought since the founding, aimed at extending Altair from simulation into data science and artificial intelligence (ZDNet). Not every deal pleased investors: the November 2018 purchase of DataWatch for $176 million in cash, then Altair’s largest deal, sent the stock down as shareholders questioned the move away from predictable simulation “solvers” (ZDNet). Scapa’s answer was that algorithms were starting to drive decisions across engineering, and that simulation data plus machine learning — “simulation-driven digital twins, and data-driven digital twins” — would let designs refine themselves (ZDNet). The strategy continued with RapidMiner, a low-code data analytics platform used by more than one million people, which Altair agreed to acquire in September 2022 and completed buying that October (HPCwire; Microwave Journal).
The end of the independent run came on October 30, 2024, when Altair agreed to be acquired by Siemens at $113.00 per share in cash, an equity value of about $10.6 billion and a 19 percent premium to the October 21 closing price (Altair Engineering Inc. via GlobeNewswire). Siemens described the same price as an enterprise value of about $10 billion — the two figures differ because equity value and enterprise value measure the deal differently, not because either side misreported it (Siemens AG). Scapa called the deal “the culmination of nearly 40 years in which Altair has grown from a startup in Detroit to a world-class software and technology company” (Altair Engineering Inc. via GlobeNewswire). Siemens completed the acquisition on March 26, 2025, and Scapa subsequently co-founded Escape Investment Management, a family office focused on investing in technology innovation (Siemens AG; Columbia Engineering).
| Milestone | Date | Scale |
|---|---|---|
| Altair founded | 1985 | 3 founders, Detroit consulting shop |
| Revenue | 2012 | Over $237 million, 3,000+ clients |
| IPO | Nov 1, 2017 | $13 pricing, $156M raised, $18.31 close |
| DataWatch deal | Nov 2018 | $176 million cash, largest deal then |
| Siemens agreement | Oct 30, 2024 | $113/share, ~$10.6B equity value |
| Siemens completion | Mar 26, 2025 | ~$10B enterprise value |
What this profile does not claim
- Scapa’s birth year and date are not given, because no fully-read source states them.
- No net-worth figure is claimed; estimates circulating in database-style sources were not verified in fully-read reporting.
- No role for Scapa at Siemens after the acquisition is claimed; the sources read describe only his move to co-found Escape Investment Management.
- The premium to Altair’s October 21, 2024 close is stated as 19%, matching both parties’ releases; the existing Altair profile’s 18.7% figure from a wire report is noted as an unresolved rounding-or-basis difference, not silently overwritten.
- Nothing is claimed about Scapa Group plc beyond the disambiguation: it is a separate manufacturer of bonding solutions and adhesive components, and this profile covers only the Altair founder.
Timeline
- 1978
- Begins his career with Ford Motor Company, later working as an engineering consultant to the automotive industry
- 1985
- Founds Altair Engineering with George Christ and Mark Kistner, after the three met as engineering consultants on a General Motors project
- 2017
- Takes Altair public on November 1: shares price at $13, raise $156 million and close the first day at $18.31, up more than 40 percent
- 2018
- Buys SimSolid in October and DataWatch in November for $176 million in cash, Altair's largest deal to that point, pushing into data science
- 2022
- Signs agreement in September to acquire RapidMiner, completed in October, adding a low-code data analytics platform used by more than one million people
- 2024
- Agrees on October 30 to sell Altair to Siemens at $113 per share in cash, about $10.6 billion in equity value
- 2025
- Siemens completes the Altair acquisition on March 26 at an enterprise value of about $10 billion; Scapa later co-founds the Escape Investment Management family office
What we could not verify
These claims came up in research and could not be confirmed. They are recorded here rather than published as fact or quietly dropped. If you hold a source that settles one, please tell us.
- Scapa's birth year and date were not stated in any fully-read source and are not claimed
- Net-worth estimates for Scapa were not verified in fully-read sources and are not claimed
- Whether Scapa holds any role at Siemens after the acquisition was not stated in fully-read sources and is not claimed
- The premium to Altair's October 21, 2024 close is 19% in both parties' releases; the existing Altair profile cites 18.7% from a wire report, a difference that looks like rounding or close-price basis and is flagged here rather than silently resolved
- Scapa's exact post-acquisition title or duties at Escape Investment Management were not detailed in the sources read
Sources
11 sources (7 tier 2, 4 first-party), each opened and read against the claim it supports. Statements the subject makes about itself are marked as such and are not treated as independent evidence. See the source policy.
Built only from sources fetched and read in full: Columbia Engineering, SBN, IndustryWeek, TechCrunch, ZDNet, HPCwire/Microwave Journal (all tier2), and Siemens and Altair releases (first-party, used for uncontested deal terms and biographical facts). No Wikipedia content is cited. The $10.6 billion figure is the deal's equity value; Siemens' completion release states an enterprise value of about $10 billion — different measures of the same transaction, not a contradiction.
- James R. Scapa Tier 2Supports: Founder and former chairman/CEO of Altair; 16,000+ customers, 3,000+ employees, 79 offices in 28 countries at sale; March 2025 Siemens acquisition; co-founder of Escape Investment Management family office; BS mechanical engineering Columbia, MBA University of Michigan Open original source
- James R. Scapa reorganizes Altair Engineering Inc. on a yearly basis to keep it moving forward Tier 2Supports: Grew up in New York, family originally from Greece, first American citizen; Ford from 1978; engineering consultant to autos; yearly reorganization habit; 1,800+ employees, 19 countries, revenue over $237M in 2012, 3,000+ clients Open original source
- Supports: Founded 1985 after chance meeting of three consultants on a GM project; founders Scapa, George Christ, Mark Kistner; Altair Computing sister company three years later; HyperMesh 1990; OptiStruct Open original source
- Supports: IPO pricing $13, $156M raised, first-day close $18.31 (+41%); founded 1985; simulation/optimization/HPC software; NASA spin-out technology; customers Blue Origin, SpaceX, Facebook; competitors Dassault, Siemens, Ansys, MSC; $313.2M revenue, $10.2M net income; not venture-backed; General Atlantic bought out 2013; proceeds to pay down debt Open original source
- Supports: 35 years building Altair; ~30 acquisitions since founding; DataWatch $176M Nov 2018, stock dropped; SimSolid Oct 2018; cash $247M vs ~$17M pre-IPO; ~45% share ownership and over half voting power; Nvidia GPU work; NASA Pleiades supercomputer tools Open original source
- Altair to Acquire RapidMiner Tier 2Supports: RapidMiner definitive agreement Sept 2022; low-code platform used by 1M+ people; Scapa as founder and CEO; integration with Knowledge Studio, SmartWorks, SLC Open original source
- Supports: RapidMiner acquisition completed; Mierswa joined Altair; DA market position in manufacturing and financial services Open original source
- Supports: $113.00 per share cash; equity value ~$10.6B; 19% premium to Oct 21, 2024 close; 13% premium to unaffected all-time high; unanimous board; expected close H2 2025; delisting; Scapa 'culmination of nearly 40 years' quote; advisors Citi and J.P. Morgan Open original source
- Siemens strengthens leadership in industrial software and AI with acquisition of Altair Engineering First-partySupports: $113/share, enterprise value ~$10B; fully cash-financed; EPS accretive two years post-closing; +€600M (+8%) digital revenue; Altair 3,500+ employees, ~1,400 in R&D, HQ Troy, Michigan; Scapa founder/CEO quote Open original source
- Siemens acquires Altair to create most complete AI-powered portfolio of industrial software First-partySupports: Completion March 26, 2025 at ~$10B enterprise value; capabilities added to Siemens Xcelerator; ONE Tech Company program; FY2024 revenue €75.9B, net income €9.0B, ~312,000 employees; $100B invested in the US over 20 years Open original source
- Supports: Disambiguation only: Scapa Group plc as a manufacturer of bonding solutions and adhesive components, separate from James Scapa Open original source
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