Ryan Gembala is a pre-seed and seed-stage technology investor & founder of Pathbreaker Ventures. As founder of one of the first deep tech funds in Silicon Valley, he is focused on solving complex global problems through novel hardware-software systems. In 2023, Ryan was named one of the Top 100 Seed Investors by Business Insider.
Prior to starting Pathbreaker, Ryan was a deal lead on the corporate development team at Facebook where he worked with product and engineering teams to landscape technology ecosystems and execute acquisitions in pursuit of Facebook's mission. Acquisitions worked on include Oculus, PrivateCore, LiveRail, Teehan Lax, and NimbleVR. Emerging areas of technology were his focus, including AI/ML, deep learning, computer vision, virtual reality, applied hardware, and infrastructure technologies across security, video, messaging, and product design.
Prior to Facebook, Ryan worked in both investing and operating roles at Azure Capital, an early-stage venture capital firm with $750 million under management. In addition to series A & B investing, he worked within portfolio companies as VP of Business Development & Partnerships at Telly, the video discovery & content network, and at Convercent, the SAAS leader in employee governance, risk, and compliance. 
Ryan is the co-founder of H.E.R.O. for Children, the first non-profit focused on quality of life care for children affected by HIV/AIDS. Ryan built HERO to $1 million in revenue and 2,000 volunteers. In 2019, HERO celebrated its 16th Anniversary, and Ryan continues to serve on the Board. 
Ryan earned his M.B.A. from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business where he focused on finance, entrepreneurship, and early stage technology investing. While in business school, he and his team won the International Venture Capital Investment Competition (VCIC) out of 56 MBA programs. 
Ryan speaks Spanish, Portuguese, and Italian and loves exploring new topics, countries, and foods.
About VSC Ventures:
For 20 years, our award-winning ⁠⁠PR agency VSC⁠⁠ has worked with innovative startups on positioning, messaging, and awareness and we are bringing that same expertise to help climate startups with storytelling and narrative building. Last year, general partners Vijay Chattha and Jay Kapoor raised a $21M fund to co-invest in the most promising startups alongside leading climate funds.
Through the conversations on our show CLIMB by VSC, we're excited to share what we're doing at VSC and VSC Ventures on climate innovation with companies like ⁠⁠Ample⁠⁠, ⁠⁠Actual⁠⁠, ⁠⁠Sesame Solar⁠⁠, ⁠⁠Synop⁠⁠, ⁠⁠Vibrant Planet⁠⁠, and ⁠⁠Zume⁠⁠ among many others.