Startup Funding

January 18, 2017

VC Profile: Fraser McCombs Capital

Headquarters: San Antonio, Texas Sectors: E-Commerce, Social Commerce, Finance Description: Fraser McCombs Capital (FMC) is a leading automotive-focused investment firm. Founded in 2012 by an automotive entrepreneur and a longtime automotive investor, we have roots in the automotive sector going back decades across all three tiers of the industry. FMC was created to bring capital and mentorship to the underserved automotive startup marketplace, where traditional investment firms refused to participate. We look to invest in new technologies and business models within the automotive vertical. “By leveraging our deep knowledge base, we are able to find connections between key players in the sector on behalf of our portfolio companies.” Recent Investments: Phunware, Inc $19.3M / Series F Phunware, Inc $30M / Series E uParts $2M / Series A (Lead) TRED $1.7M / Angel Website: http://www.fmcap.com Tony Rimas is a Managing Partner with Fraser McCombs Capital, Tony also serves as the Director of Operations for the McCombs Automotive Group the 37th largest dealer group in the United States.  In this capacity, he is recognized for growing McCombs Automotive to the 3rd largest privately held online retailer in the country. Over the last decade he has specialized in B2B sales and management while serving the McCombs Partners portfolio. Tony originated investments in HomeNet Automotive, ClickMotive, and AutoVest.  All of which are best in class solutions to the automotive retail industry.  HomeNet became the market share leader in automotive inventory management; Autotrader.com acquired the company in November 2010. DealerTrack (NASDAQ: TRAK) acquired Clickmotive in October 2012. Tony is also a regular guest speaker at industry events.  His technical background and education includes multiple degrees in Chemistry, Physics, and the NADA Dealer Candidate Academy.

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The Importance of Monitoring Startup Deals

by Hall Martin Investors in startups need to monitor the candidate startup before investing so as to better understand the company and to see some consistent progress. As an angel investor, I hear pitches every day.  It’s been a while since I heard a software pitch that WASN’T going to market in two months.  In fact, everyone is “going to market in two months,” but the reality is that most take one to two years to really get traction in a market. When I find a potential investment that looks interesting, I put it on my watch list.  My father was a buy-and-hold value investor in publicly traded stocks.  He had a watch list of 10 stocks that he checked every month. He would look up their earnings, check for any management team changes, see what new products they were offering, and then he would look at the price.  After a period of time, sometimes a few months, sometimes a few years., he would decide to invest or not.  A no meant he took it off his watch list.  A yes meant he invested money and put it in his portfolio. Startups are pretty much the same.  You can track them on their sales growth, team changes,  product development, and  in this case their fundraise.  As you receive reports you can start to build out a list of key traction points– leads, sales, channels, etc.  As one investor said, “I don’t invest in dots. I invest in lines.”  It’s important to build out a picture of how the business is growing. By watching the deal over a period of time, you can better understand it and also hopefully see an upward trajectory at which point an investment makes sense.

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Top Texas Seed Ventures from Q4 2016

Top fundings for Q4 of 2016 were led by CognitiveScale, Medici Technologies, Phunware, Twyla, and Trendkite with the top ten fundings totaling $176M. Company Name Money Raised Announced On Date CognitiveScale $25,000,000 10/4/2016 Medici Technologies $24,000,000 11/28/2016 Phunware, Inc. $22,000,000 11/1/2016 Twyla Inc $19,000,000 10/13/2016 TrendKite $16,300,000 11/4/2016 DiCentral $15,000,000 10/4/2016 Ranzure Networks $13,000,000 10/11/2016 ES Xplore $12,000,000 12/7/2016 Tiff’s Treats $11,000,000 11/1/2016 Catapult Health $10,000,000 11/2/2016    

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