IVCA Feature: New Member Profile of FM Capital
Throughout 2026, new member participants in the Illinois Venture Capital Association (IVCA) will keep it expanding. These new members also will give the current membership new opportunities for networking … in addition to optimizing support and partnerships … which leads to guidance and new ideas for Venture Capital, Private Equity and the support industries.
The latest new member is the global law firm FM Capital, “a venture firm focused on transforming transportation. (They) partner with entrepreneurs to advance cleaner, safer, and more efficient movement of people and goods – while also reimagining the customer and dealer experience in vehicle sales and service.”
The following is a Q&A profile with FM Capital, which explores the firm’s background and their expectations for interacting with the IVCA.
New Member: FM Capital
Representative:
Joel Zimbrick, Associate
IVCA: What is a brief history of and background of FM Capital?
FM Capital: FM Capital was founded in 2012. The firm’s roots go back to Managing Partner Chase Fraser’s experience building MarketQuiz, an automotive dealership technology company that was acquired in 2009, and to the automotive network of dealer and entrepreneur Red McCombs, with whom Chase launched what was then Fraser McCombs Capital.
Over time, our investment mandate expanded from automotive retail technology into the broader transportation ecosystem. Today, FM Capital manages more than $500 million and invests in early-to mid-stage companies – transforming how people and goods move – as well as how vehicles are sold, financed, serviced and operated. Our team combines venture investing with operating backgrounds in dealerships, vehicle manufacturers, mobility businesses and technology companies.
IVCA: Why did the firm decide to join the Illinois Venture Capital Association?
FM Capital: We saw IVCA as a strong combination of community, education and advocacy. Investors frequently tout the benefits their networks provide, but IVCA goes beyond networking by giving members a meaningful connection to the policy environment affecting private capital and the companies we back, and a channel to advocate in those domains.
For FM Capital, that creates several forms of value … staying current on legislative developments, learning from other firms, meeting potential co-investors/strategic partners, and participating in a sophisticated community outside our immediate network. Just as importantly, we hope we can contribute our own experience investing in automotive, mobility, logistics and transportation technology to the broader IVCA membership.
IVCA: The firm focuses on transportation. With, for example, driverless vehicles becoming more expansive, and shipping complexities facilitating alternative growth, what areas within the transportation sector is the firm focusing on both in the portfolio and pending deals?
FM Capital: We think of transportation as an ecosystem. Our focus spans several major themes – autonomy and robotics; vehicle connectivity and fleet management; AI and software; automotive retail, finance and service; freight and logistics; and the transition toward cleaner vehicles, energy systems and infrastructure.
You can see those themes throughout the portfolio. Gatik is applying autonomy to middle-mile freight; companies such as Tekion, myKaarma, WarrCloud and RevolutionParts are modernizing dealership and vehicle-service workflows; Factorial is developing next-generation battery technology. Our other investments address vehicle data, privacy, charging, fleet optimization and the broader energy transition.
Without getting ahead of unannounced transactions, our current pipeline continues to concentrate on the same pillars … auto commerce, autonomy and sensors, connectivity and fleet management, and electrification. Increasingly, AI cuts horizontally across all of them. We are particularly interested in technologies that can solve a measurable industry problem today while becoming infrastructure for a much larger transportation system tomorrow.
IVCA: The firm also has altruistic goals in investing, as transportation is a a leading cause of climate change. How does this philosophy play into decision making regarding investments?
FM Capital: We do not view impact as a separate mandate or as a concession to financial returns. In transportation, many of the industry's biggest inefficiencies are also its biggest investment opportunities. If technology can reduce wasted miles, energy consumption, idling or congestion; make vehicles and roads safer; improve utilization; or make mobility more accessible, there can be significant social and environmental benefits as the business scales, not in spite of it. Our mission explicitly identifies cleaner air, reduced emissions, safer roads and more efficient and equitable access to mobility as outcomes of getting transportation innovation right.
That does not replace traditional investment discipline. A company still needs a strong team, differentiated technology, a large addressable market, compelling economics and a credible path to scale. But when those fundamentals align with a product that makes transportation cleaner, safer or substantially more efficient, we see that as a particularly powerful combination.
IVCA: One of your portfolio companies THE SAVINGS GROUP, which is actually a platform for evolving the multi-tiered aspects of automobile financing. What intrigued the firm about this way to simplify paperwork in that sector, and how is it manifested in THE SAVINGS GROUP?
FM Capital: What initially intrigued us about THE SAVINGS GROUP was not simply the opportunity to digitize paperwork. It was the opportunity to redesign a highly fragmented lending process.
The original platform could take a consumer’s information and evaluate it against the underwriting criteria of multiple lenders, particularly credit unions, rather than forcing the borrower through a serial process of applying to lenders one at a time. The workflow connected the lead form, decision engine, loan-term customization and document upload, in addition to electronic verification, document execution and customer service. The goal was to match a consumer with an attractive loan in real time while acquisition cost for the lender. That was central to our original investment thesis.
What also mattered was the team. The founders were automotive lending practitioners who understood underwriting, loan portfolios and servicing before building the technology. They were solving a problem they had experienced firsthand rather than approaching auto finance as outsiders.
THE SAVINGS GROUP today is the scaled expression of that idea. Through AUTOPAY, RateGenius and Tresl, the platform connects borrowers and financial institutions across vehicle purchases, refinancing and lease buyouts. Lenders maintain control of their underwriting guidelines and funding decisions while the platform handles much of the validation, compliance, administration and borrower experience.
IVCA: In your website mission statement, the firms notes proprietary sourcing for delivering high-quality deal flow. What does that statement mean in the step-by-step process of the deal?
FM Capital: ‘Proprietary’ does not mean secret. It means that we try to create our own signal rather than depend primarily on whatever happens to arrive in our inbox.
The process generally begins identifying an industry pain point or technology shift and mapping the companies addressing it. We rely on our strategic network, which includes entrepreneurs, portfolio executives and industry participants across dealers, OEMs, suppliers, fleets, insurers, software providers and other transportation businesses to identify strong companies, often before a formal fundraising process begins. FM’s Fund IV investor base itself spans dealers, distributors, OEMs, suppliers, insurers and other industry participants, which gives the firm an unusually broad source of market intelligence.
From there, that same network becomes part of diligence. We can speak with prospective customers and industry experts, validate the severity of the problem, pressure-test the product and understand how the company fits into real-world transportation workflows. We then underwrite the management team, technology, market, economics, competitive position and financing terms.
And sourcing does not end when the investment closes. The network can then be used to help portfolio companies find customers, strategic partners, talent and industry expertise. That combination of sector-focused sourcing and hands-on portfolio engagement is an important part of what we mean when we describe FM Capital’s model.
IVCA: What does FM Capital hope to achieve in their interaction with the VC/PE community within the IVCA?
FM Capital: Our objective is to be an active participant. We want to build relationships with investors with different perspectives, exchange ideas on company building, governance, capital markets and portfolio management, and develop relationships that can lead to collaboration. We also value IVCA’s policy work because both investors and portfolio companies operate in an environment increasingly shaped by regulation, technology policy and public-sector decisions.
At the same time, FM Capital has spent more than a decade building specialized knowledge and relationships across transportation. We hope to bring that sector perspective to IVCA, particularly as autonomy, AI, energy, logistics and advanced manufacturing increasingly intersect with investments being made by firms that may not traditionally think of themselves as “transportation investors.”
Ultimately, the best industry associations create a network in which everybody has something to learn and something to contribute. That is how we hope to participate in IVCA.
For the website of FM Capital click here.
The 2026 IVCA CFO Summit is now open for registration and is FREE to all IVCA members, and will take place on October 22nd, 2026. Click on CFO for more information and instructions to register.