Fontinalis Partners launched in 2009 as one of the first venture firms built specifically around mobility, defining it broadly as the movement of goods, people, and services, and pairing that focus with an operator-heavy team—including Bill Ford, former Ford executives, and former Chicago and Washington D.C. transportation commissioner Gabe Klein—while remaining formally independent from Ford Motor Company. Known as one of Detroit's most recognized venture firms, it was the only institutional investor in both the seed and Series A rounds of autonomous driving company nuTonomy, helped build the mobility startup ecosystem through programs like Techstars Mobility, and has since expanded from its mobility roots into backing founders across broader industrial and frontier technology sectors.