DC: Meet the Investors in Transportation for Tomorrow
The Intelligent Transportation Society of America (ITS America) announced Fontinalis Partners LLC., and Econolite Group Inc. as sponsoring investors for the inaugural Transportation for Tomorrow Investor Matching Event at this year’s World Congress on Intelligent Transport Systems, Sept. 7-11, in Detroit.
The ITS World Congress highlights the best and brightest innovators and game changers in the transportation industry. The ITS America Investor Matching Event will bring together premier financial and strategic investment groups with young and dynamic companies, whose entrepreneurs have cutting-edge technologies and ideas in the fields of mobility, sustainability, and safety. These select companies will have a unique opportunity to pitch their innovations for investor funding from some highly strategic investment firms devoted to this sector.
“We are excited to again be a leading sponsor of an ITS World Congress event focused on building and supporting the entrepreneurial ecosystem in the Intelligent Transportation and Next-Generation Mobility sector.” said Chris Thomas, a founder and managing director at Fontinalis Partners. “The future of this industry is particularly compelling at the intersection of new entrepreneurial activity and innovative incumbent industry leadership.”
Fontinalis Partners is a leading and forward thinking venture capital firm focused exclusively on emerging companies in Next-Generation Mobility. Fontinalis was founded in Detroit in 2009 and now has offices in both Detroit and Boston. The firm’s mission is to drive and accelerate innovation across the mobility sector. Fontinalis has considerable experience in structuring transactions, conducting strategic due diligence and developing game-changing corporate strategies for mobility companies, and the firm’s unique focus has led it to invest in some of the most promising venture opportunities to emerge in the Next-Generation Mobility marketplace globally.
The global transportation market is expecting exponential growth by 2018 and companies in their first five years of life account for virtually all net growth in the U.S. economy. Transportation for Tomorrow will provide the opportunity for high-tech transportation innovators to pitch their groundbreaking ideas for transforming the way the public moves.
“We are thrilled to be joining Fontinalis in the ITS America Investor Matching Event at this year’s ITS World Congress. This opportunity represents the emergence of innovative thinkers in the ITS industry at its best,” said President and COO of Econolite Group, David St. Amant.
Econolite Group, the Investor Matching Event’s corporate strategic investor, is committed to employing advanced technologies that reduce travel time, ease congestion, enhance transit operations, provide safer mobility, and improve quality of life.
The deadline for emerging companies working to improve mobility to apply for a chance to pitch the next big idea in smarter transportation at the ITS America Investor Matching Event is May 14. Qualified candidates must submit an application in the form of a competitive and compelling business plan, have been in business less than six years, and to date secured no more than $5 million in funding. ITS America and its investment partners will evaluate the submitted applications on the strength of their proposal, and will select a limited number to present in Detroit.
