FM Capital

We are thrilled today to announce that Holman, a global automotive services leader, has acquired a minority interest in FM Capital. This is the first time an integrated automotive services organization has acquired a general partner interest in an automotive VC.   We’ve collaborated with Bill Cariss and Holman for nearly a decade. They share our conviction about the massive opportunity in the transformation of the automotive industry. Their unrivaled combination of dealerships, fleet leasing and management services, and corporate venture capital arm is truly unique in the automotive sector and make them the ideal strategic partner for FM Capital.   The press release below has more details.   https://lnkd.in/dkjddHkm

“Perform while you transform” – this is the challenge facing nearly everyone in the rapidly transforming automotive ecosystem, from #OEMs to #dealers to #suppliers.   Our own Mark Norman discussed this as well as a wide range of topics, including #EVs, the role of #AI, #funding trends, and the importance of solving pain points at scale on the Shift Mobility podcast this week   Thank you to Pete Bigelow and Automotive News for having Mark on the show.   You can listen to it via the link below.   https://lnkd.in/gZP9CXjy  

Great piece on our portfolio company Viaduct. Their founder and CEO David Hallac sat down with John McElroy of AutoLine TV for a wide-ranging discussion about how Viaduct’s #AI technology is helping #OEMs, #suppliers and #fleets reduce costs and downtime while speeding time to identify and fix product defects. They’ve already helped customers save and/or avoid hundreds of millions in costs.   We believe this is a tipping point not just for the #automotive industry, but really for AI in general. Combing through terabytes of multi-dimensional #data to find often complex and unintuitive connections is beyond the reach of today’s BI tools, even more so the human brain. Viaduct’s AI solution can do in minutes what usually takes months.   We’re thrilled to have invested in them and look forward to partnering with them to scale the business and increase the impact for their customers.   https://lnkd.in/ge-GZHef

Jake Sigal has a great OEM-centric perspective in this Automotive News opinion piece. We're bullish on automotive tech and our industry! Thanks Jake.

The time is now to quit your job and start an #autotech company. Seriously. That’s the advice from our technology operating partner Jake Sigal. And he ought to know. He started and exited two companies during economic downturns, and he’s condensed his knowledge and rationale into 5 quick bullets. Read the full piece in Automotive News. Thank you Jamie Butters for the opportunity! What are you waiting for? #detroit #automotive #startups #venturecapital

One of the more exciting aspects of investing in #automotive #innovation is the real-world impact it brings. Each year, defects and failures cost automotive manufacturers billions of dollars while inconveniencing drivers, commercial carriers and their customers.   Our newest portfolio company, Viaduct, aims to change that with a revolutionary AI-driven solution that finds “the needle in the haystack” to help customers identify, fix and even predict issues affecting product quality and causing downtime. Viaduct’s solution has been shown to reduce the time to detect issues by over 90 percent, resulting in up to an 80 percent reduction in unplanned downtime.   We are proud to have led their $10 million Series B, alongside Stellantis Ventures, Sumitomo Rubber North America, Innovation Endeavors and Exor Ventures.   They’ve proven the technology across 100 billion miles of telematics-tracked vehicles and hundreds of terabytes of #data analyzed each month with several leading car and truck manufacturers, suppliers and commercial customers. They are now investing in scaling both within and outside the automotive sector.   Viaduct solves major pain points resulting in real-world cost savings, efficiency improvement, and higher customer satisfaction and quality rankings. Read the press release below.

Our Managing Partner Mark Norman took the stage last week at the Smart Cars Driving Summit at Princeton University. The annual event gathers leading global voices to initiate and facilitate the scalable deployment of smart #mobility of people and goods for safer streets, connected communities, and economic growth.   He was joined by Steve Greenfield and Cliff Banks for a “Deep Dive” discussion moderated by Jay Ferriero on venture investments in mobility and SmartDrivingCars. In particular, the panel talked about the role that Venture Capital can play in bridging the gap between ‘proof of concept’ and ‘proof of market’. We look forward to scaling commercial automation solutions in the coming quarters. We pride ourselves on providing not just funding to our portfolio, but also our deep experience building businesses and support from our strategic LPs.   Thank you Alain Kornhauser and Princeton University for such a great event!

Our very own Dylan Grien took the stage at the CoMobility Summit 2024 produced by The Company Lab (CO.LAB) in Chattanooga earlier this week. He was joined by Santosh Sankar, Jacob Frost and Dan Ratliff for a wide-ranging discussion about investing in sustainable mobility and transportation companies. Our POV is that the overall trend for automotive innovation is inextricably linked to sustainability (or at least improvements to the status quo). If you’re investing in automotive, you’re investing in sustainability in one way, shape, or form. We've seen "hype cycles" before, but when sustainability is an externality of tech that improves lives, we see that "hype" isn't necessarily needed to drive adoption. Thanks to the team for hosting such a great event! 

Thank you Joe Overby and Cherokee Media Group for inviting our founder and Managing Partner Chase Fraser to participate in the Auto Intel Forum. Chase was joined by Patrick O'Boyle at Cox, Steve Greenfield of Automotive Ventures and Chris Elliott at America's Group for an engaging discussion on the Automotive Investment Landscape focused on the state of the wholesale vehicle market. Among the topics the group discussed were whether or not the increase in buy-sell activity among the dealer groups will continue its blistering pace; what problems are the emerging and new startups in auto tech seeking to solve; and what makes an auction location/group raise its hand as either a buyer or seller, among others. In particular, Chase weighed in the growing interest among dealer groups in participating in FM Capital’s funding rounds and/or alongside FM Capital on specific deals.

FM Capital Managing Partner Mark Norman recently stopped by the editorial offices of Automotive News for a roundtable briefing session with several journalists. Afterward, he sat down with Jamie Butters for a wide ranging discussion on #dealertech, #autonomy and #electrification on the Daily Drive Podcast. Along the way they discussed FM Capital’s strategic approach to managing risk and driving returns for shareholders, as well as how they leverage the firm’s deep bench of Limited Partners, Strategic Investors and Operating Partners to create opportunities for portfolio companies, including Gatik, Tekion Corp, Indigo Technologies and Factorial Energy. You can listen to the podcast below. https://lnkd.in/g9Szajfa