Chris Thomas
Co-Founder and Partner @ Fontinalis Partners
Detroit, United States
Chris Thomas is a co-founder and partner of Assembly Ventures.Prior to Assembly Ventures he co-founded the Detroit Mobility Lab and the Michigan Mobility Institute. Previous to this, Chris co-founded Fontinalis Partners and for over a decade worked to build it into one of the premier investment firms in next-generation mobility. While atFontinalis he served as a Board Member for nuTonomy (acquired by Aptiv in October 2017) and Karamba Security, and as a Board Observer at ParkMe (acquired by INRIX in September 2015), Parkmobile (acquired by BMW in January 2018), Life360 (IPO in May 2019), Ouster and SmartKargo. Prior to Fontinalis Chris served in the U.S. Army as a Communications Officer in the U.S. and Iraq. Before joining the military, Chris worked as an Investment Banker at UBS within its Technology and Energy groups in San Francisco and New York. Additionally, Chris acts as a Senior Advisor to the COMMIT Foundation and is a member of the Global Cleantech 100 expert panel. He is also a Co-Owner of Buddy's Pizza, the birthplace of original Detroit-style pizza, and an avid angel investor. Chris has previously advised a number of mobility startups around the globe; served as the Chairman of Read to a Child, a national children’s literacy and mentoring nonprofit in the United States; and acted as a member of the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council on Personal Transportation Systems. Chris earned his Master’s degree in Business Administration from the Yale School of Management. While at Yale he served on the Honor Committee and graduated with distinction in former Prime Minister Tony Blair’s seminar on Faith and Globalization. He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in both Economics and International Relations from Michigan State University. Chris is a resident of the City of Detroit where he lives with his wife and sons. He is a staunch advocate of connected communities, early childhood literacy, and the doctrine of the strenuous life.
- Total investments:
- 40
- Last investment:
- Lead investor:
- 25%
Last updated:
For AI agents: llms.txt
Industries Chris Thomas invests in
Stages Chris Thomas invests in
Countries Chris Thomas invests in
Round sizes
Contacts
| Type | Contact | Validation |
|---|---|---|
| Work email | ||
| Personal email | ||
| Work phone | ||
| Personal phone | ||
| Socials |
Round size
- Seed
- $395k–$5.5M
- Series A
- $5.5M–$27M
- Series B
- $10M–$42M
Investment Focus
Industry
- Mobile 6 (15%)
- Software 6 (15%)
- SaaS 5 (13%)
- Automotive 5 (13%)
- Logistics 4 (10%)
Stage
- Series A 11 (28%)
- Seed 9 (23%)
- Series B 4 (10%)
- Venture - Series Unknown 4 (10%)
- Pre-Seed 3 (8%)
Country
- United States 20 (50%)
- Mexico 2 (5%)
- Canada 1 (3%)
- Israel 1 (3%)
Investments
| Company | Description | Round | Links |
|---|---|---|---|
| Monogoto is a cloud-based cellular network. Its API-driven Infrastructure-as-a-Service was designed from the ground up with simplicity in mind to enable cellular connectivity with existing enterprise IT infrastructure. With hundreds of ready-to-use APIs, Monogoto offers cellular connectivity with edge to the cloud security for IoT, Private LTE, and5G use cases. Its services include full audit for all network events with anomaly detection and alerts automation. Monogoto’s enterprise-friendly solution enables customers to consume advanced cellular VAS with zero CAPEX and an “as-a-Service” business model. The Monogoto network is distributed globally with public connectivity in 180 countries. Helping companies to comply with regulation, the Monogoto solution supports on-premise local breakout topology for private LTE/5G networks. | $27M / Series A / Oct 15, 2024 | ||
| Sortera Alloys manufactures low-cost, high-quality metal alloys for domestic manufacturing using its artificial intelligence technology. Sortera Alloys is a company based in Fort Wayne, Indiana, and was established in 2020. | $44.4M / Series C / Aug 30, 2023 | ||
| Developer of a space logistics platform designed to enable sustainable orbital operations and optimize satellite missions. The company platform offers proprietary software, innovative relocation hardware, and debris mitigation services, enabling satellite operators to extend mission duration, enhance capabilities, and address orbital congestioneffectively. | Seed / Jul 22, 2022 | ||
| Sortera Alloys manufactures low-cost, high-quality metal alloys for domestic manufacturing using its artificial intelligence technology. Sortera Alloys is a company based in Fort Wayne, Indiana, and was established in 2020. | $10M / Series B / Jul 07, 2022 | ||
| Pacto is a B2B enterprise software and payments platform focused on small merchants in Latin America. Pacto builds tools and technology to allow banks and financial institutions to empower merchants to move beyond cash payments and accelerate growth in their digital business. Pacto is headquartered in Mexico City, Mexico. | $2M / Pre-Seed / Mar 30, 2022 | ||
| Our Next Energy is a Michigan-based developer of innovative energy storage solutions with a vision to rapidly expand the world's access to sustainable power. | $65M / Series A / Mar 01, 2022 | ||
| Our Next Energy is a Michigan-based developer of innovative energy storage solutions with a vision to rapidly expand the world's access to sustainable power. | $25M / Series A / Oct 18, 2021 | ||
| Gatik is a startup developing technology for autonomous light & medium duty trucks for B2B short-haul logistics. It specializes in the fields of artificial intelligence, automotive, and logistics. It was founded in 2017 and headquartered in Mountain View, California. | $25M / Series A / Nov 23, 2020 | ||
| Ouster builds high-resolution lidar sensors for autonomous vehicles, robotics, and many other applications. Using its unique multi-beam flash lidar design, Ouster brings Moore's Law to lidar with an all-semiconductor approach to 3D sensing. Ouster is a privately held, venture-backed company located in San Francisco, California. | $42M / Series B / Sep 08, 2020 | ||
| Gatik is a startup developing technology for autonomous light & medium duty trucks for B2B short-haul logistics. It specializes in the fields of artificial intelligence, automotive, and logistics. It was founded in 2017 and headquartered in Mountain View, California. | $4.5M / Seed / Jun 06, 2019 | ||
| See all 40 investments → | |||
Co-Investors
About Fontinalis Partners
Fontinalis Partners, with offices in Detroit and Boston, is a venture capital firm strategically focused on next generation mobility. Fontinalis’ mission is to leverage the team’s considerable management experience, market access, strategic relationships, international expertise, and background in transportation innovation to scale companiesproviding next-generation mobility solutions. Fontinalis invests as a strategic partner across all facets of the world’s mobility systems on a stage- and size-agnostic basis. Fontinalis is not affiliated with Ford Motor Company.
Fontinalis Partners Contacts
| Name | Phone | Socials | |
|---|---|---|---|
Christopher Cheever
Founder and Managing Partner
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Christopher Stallman
Managing Partner
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Dan Ratliff
Partner
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Gabe Cunningham
Partner
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Gabe Klein
Venture Partner
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FAQ
What does Chris Thomas invest in?
Chris Thomas invests primarily in Mobile, Software and SaaS startups, most often at Series A and Seed stage. Most of the 40 investments tracked by Shizune back companies in United States. The Investment Focus section breaks down every industry, stage and country in the portfolio.
What is Chris Thomas's check size?
Chris Thomas typically joins rounds of $395k–$5.5M at Seed, $5.5M–$27M at Series A and $10M–$42M at Series B. These ranges are 10th–90th percentile round sizes calculated from confirmed public funding rounds, so they are a realistic guide to the rounds Chris Thomas participates in.
How do I contact Chris Thomas?
Public channels for Chris Thomas include LinkedIn and the website linked on this profile. For a verified work email and phone number, create a free Shizune account — contact data is searched across 20+ sources and validated before delivery, so your outreach lands in the right inbox.
When did Chris Thomas last invest?
The most recent investment recorded for Chris Thomas closed in Oct 2024. Shizune tracks 40 investments in total for this profile, including round sizes, stages and portfolio companies, all sourced from confirmed public funding rounds and refreshed monthly.
Is Shizune's investor data accurate?
Yes — every stat on this profile is calculated from confirmed public funding rounds monitored across hundreds of sources since 2020. This profile was last refreshed in Oct 2026 and is updated monthly. Spotted something off? Use the “Suggest an edit” link near the top of the page.
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