M25

M25

Firm Headquarters: Chicago, IL

Date Founded: 2015

Investments to Date: 100-250

m25vc.com

This Page was Updated September 2020

Investment Approach

We invest in high potential digital/software technology startups in the Midwest region of the United States. We enter early (<$1M annualized revenues) have a highly diversified strategy to minimize risk across the portfolio. We raise a series of closed end funds roughly every 3 years. Our most recent fund is a 2019 vintage Fund III. The asset class is early-stage US venture capital.

We will have given companies in the Midwest their first capital, taking that risk off the table so that some of them can be truly world-changing, valued at $1B+, thousands of employees and creating innovative, high-value products the world is better off with.

Focused Geographic Regions of Investment: 

  • Is all of your activity in the US?

    • Yes, in 14 Midwest states, the most frequent being Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Minnesota, Michigan, Missouri and Western Pennsylvania. 

  • What countries outside of the US are you active in? N/A

Focused Industries of Investment:

  • Data, Software and Technology

  • Healthcare

  • Transportation

  • Banking and Finance

  • Consumer Retail

  • Consumer Services

Previous or Active Portfolio Companies:

We have 100+ portfolio companies, but some of our most successful include Scriptdrop, Kin Insurance, Branch, Regroup Therapy, Summersalt, Chowly, Opscompass and Upsie.

Investment Example:

Scriptdrop provides software to enable on-demand prescription delivery service in the workflow of the pharmacist, ultimately paid for by the drug manufacturer. Since M25’s initial investment when the company was pre-revenue, they have launched nationally with Albertsons and Kroger, among other pharmacies. M25 has reinvested three times (leading one of the followon rounds) and M25 partner Mike Asem acts as a board observer. With the combined investment multiple sitting over 11x, later-stage investment from both Greycroft and Cardinal Health and the company rapidly scaling to over 100 employees in just a few years, Mike has had to act as a friend and mentor to the founders in incredibly exciting yet stressful times. 

Capital Raise Strategy

  • Total Assets Under Management: $35M

  • Total Number of Investors: 60

  • Average Investment: $250–500K   

  • Minimum Amount: $250K

  • % of Capital from Top 3 Investors: More than 50%

  • Financial Reporting Frequency to Investors: Quarterly Reports

  • Setup to accept charitable capital through the National Christian Foundation or other listing platforms?
    Not at this time.

Leadership Team

  • Cumulative Leadership Experience in Accredited Investing: 10-20 years

Victor Gutwein | Managing partner

Victor grew up in northwestern Indiana before moving to Chicago to study economics at the University of Chicago. Victor has a passionate history with startups, including a vending machine business and kick scooter company, along with being on the board of UChicago’s first student-run venture fund. A Kauffman Fellow (Class 22) and former leader in Hyde Park Angels, Victor founded M25 in 2015 and quickly grew it to become the most active venture firm in the Midwest. Victor lives with his wife and two kids on the South Side of Chicago and loves staying active with running, biking, swimming, backpacking and any team sport you’ll let him join. If he can’t convince you to break a sweat with him though, he’ll usually succeed in getting you to try out a Euro-style board game (like Settlers of Catan) with his friends.

Mike asem | managing partner

As a partner at M25, Mike has participated in nearly 100 investments in early-stage companies across the Midwest. Outside of his responsibilities at M25, Mike is a Kauffman Fellow (Class 24) and a board member at BLCK VC, leading initiatives in the Midwest to connect, engage, empower, and advance Black venture investors. Prior to M25, Mike founded The Anvil, a co-working space and startup incubator on Purdue University’s campus, where he helped launch the first Purdue startup to be accepted to Y Combinator. Mike lives in Chicago with his wife, Erikka. In his free time, he enjoys making wine, eating sushi, following Chicago sports, and traveling with his wife.

katie birge | associate & Head of platform

Katie is a lifelong Hoosier born and raised in Jasper, Indiana. She studied Communication and Classical Civilization at DePauw University before heading to Indiana University for her MA in Telecommunications (think social informatics and innovation communities…not telegrams and TVs). Katie’s thesis that startups will help the industrial Midwest rise again led her to the Bloomington Technology Partnership, where she started Bloomington Code School and co-founded an accelerator while growing the college town’s tech community. Katie has worked in the trenches of software companies and startups and most recently served as executive director of Launch Indy, an entrepreneurship center and coworking space. Katie is a long-time organizer of the Combine tech conference and in her free time, she collects plants and vacations across the 92 counties of Indiana.

abhinaya konduru | associate

Abhinaya attended University of Illinois at Chicago where she studied Finance and Mathematical Computer Science. While she was there, she led the finance student organization and co-founded the Portfolio Management Team which is now one of the largest organizations in the college. She was also a part of numerous programs to help increase digital literacy in the community by partnering with Google and Blue1647. When she finds a problem, she seeks to solve it by taking action. She started a video series, where she showcased up-and-coming entrepreneurs by documenting their day. She grew up in India and suburbs of Chicago. Currently, she lives in the Loop where you can find her cooking food for friends and random people.

luke skertich | associate

Luke grew up in the Western suburbs of Chicago and earned his Bachelor’s degree in Bioengineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He developed a keen interest for academic research in undergrad, which laid a solid foundation for his approach to product development in tech. Before coming to M25, Luke found a passion for exciting entrepreneurial ventures. He worked as a Product Manager at three B2B tech start-ups in Chicago, spanning the benefits administration, fintech and human capital management spaces. Luke is actively involved in fundraising and volunteering for Easterseals DuPage & Fox Valley. He is currently an MBA candidate at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business with concentrations in Finance, Entrepreneurship, and Strategic Management. In his free time, he enjoys travelling, science fiction novels, hiking, woodworking, & staying active.

shaun walker | venture associate

Shaun was born in England to parents serving in the U.S. military. His family settled in western New York outside of Rochester after the first several years of his childhood. Shaun earned his Bachelor of Business Administration degree from nearby SUNY Geneseo. For a few years during and after college, Shaun worked for the family business. In 2010, he relocated to Miami, FL for an enterprise sales role at a global technology and services company, a position he held for nearly seven years. Shaun left this role to start his own SaaS sales enablement company in 2016 which he folded at the beginning of 2019. Shaun is currently an MBA Candidate at The University of Chicago Booth School of Business. He and his Wife Elissa are avid cooks and live in Chicago’s River North neighborhood with their rescue dog, Fitzgerald.

Leandro Bedolla | analyst

Leandro is originally from Michoacán, Mexico, grew up in Joliet, IL, and graduated from Valparaiso University with a BSBA in Finance and minors in both Engineering and Mathematics. While at Valpo, he co-founded TEDxValparaisoUniversity, led Lambda Chi Alpha, and helped restart the Financial Management Association resulting in being recognized by the University and its president with the “Outstanding Leadership and Service” award. Most recently, Leandro was an associate with the Techstars Anywhere accelerator making it the best experience possible for the founders! Previously, he’s conducted due diligence with the Tech Coast Angels, organized conferences for Startup San Diego as MD of sponsorships, and conducted business development for a startup. In his free time, Leandro enjoys listening to podcasts, working out, and connecting others to potential opportunities.

Spiritual Integration and Impact:

Faith Driven Investing can span a wide range from high yield to concessionary returns that have a higher level of spiritual integration. Having clear expectations of this philosophy is key for the movement. Each investment is unique and you might want to select multiples but if you had to choose one quadrant that best fits your groups spiritual integration and financial performance targets … What would it be?

We do not invest exclusively in faith-driven founders, we do not have a chaplaincy or host missional type services for our founders and it is not a requirement to be a Believer to work at M25.

That being said, the general partners of M25 are explicit about their faith and why they do what they do, M25 is clearly and visibly named after a Biblical chapter, and we do not invest in vice industries explicitly for this reason. The general partners are active in mentoring, judging and sourcing faith driven entrepreneurs, and have seen opportunities to vocalize their faith and be visible through their actions to founders, co-investors and others in the ecosystem.

Describe the Spiritual Integration Activities of the Fund:

  • Sharing the meaning behind our name and the parable with LPs, co-investors, founders and audiences and in doing so spreading the words of Jesus

  • Praying for our portfolio companies and executives as they navigate the challenging road of entrepreneurship

  • Making ourselves available in the form of mentorship, speaking, writing and otherwise for organizations like Praxis Labs, Faith Driven Entrepreneur, Faith Driven Investor, OCEAN Accelerator, FaithTech and others.

  • Screening out and not considering all investment opportunities we believe to be potentially destructive and therefore not kingdom-building like alcohol, tobacco, gambling, pornography, etc.

  • Consistently making space for our founders to talk about and work on their personal lives outside of work – whether it be spiritual, mental, physical, or marital.

  • Speaking openly and consistently about our faith and values in formal and informal settings, holding the door open for fellowship with our founders.

Is Impact and Spiritual Integration Tracked?

  • Not currently.

Are you partnered with any other organizations?

  • OCEAN, Praxis, FaithTech

A lot of Investing Conversations look at Social Impact related to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. Is there one of these that most resonates with your organization?

  • Gender inequality, but with the addition of racial/ethnic inequalities as well.

WHY The FAITH DRIVEN INVESTOR?

  • Why are you compelled to be certified and a part of the Faith Driven Investor Group?

    We currently have many faith driven investors as part of our funds, and we do believe it is critical to have support that aligns with our values. While not all of our capital will be raised from faith driven investors, we are hopeful that their involvement can be a huge element of accountability – reducing mission drift – and an encouragement to push our comfortable limits.

  • Does the leadership align with the Unifying Principles on Faith Driven Investor and agree to the Code of Conduct? Yes!

  • Who nominated you to be listed on the FDI site?
    Henry Kaestner, Luke Roush and Kenneth Ewell

AFFILIATIONS- Are you a part of any third party groups, affiliations that you would like to list here?

  • Kauffman Fellows (both Mike and Victor)

  • BLCK VC (Mike)

Learn More

  • Key Contact Name: Victor Guwein

  • Email: victor@m25vc.com

  • Mailing Address: 415 N LaSalle Dr, #500, Chicago, IL 60654