Ryan Gembala
General Partner, Managing Partner & Founder @ Pathbreaker Ventures
San Francisco, United States
Ryan Gembala is a seed investor at Pathbreaker Ventures in San Francisco focused on Artificial Intelligence and Software. Ryan is a seed stage technology investor & founder of Pathbreaker Ventures. Prior to starting Pathbreaker, Ryan was a deal lead on the corporate development team at Facebook where he spent time working 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. Areas of focus included virtual reality, security, artificial intelligence, video, and product design.Prior to Facebook, Ryan worked in both an investing and operating role 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 $1M in revenue and 2,000 volunteers. In 2018, HERO celebrates its 15th Anniversary where Ryan continues to serve on the Board. Ryan earned his MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business where he focused on finance, entrepreneurship, and early stage tech investing. At Chicago, he and his team won the International Venture Capital Investment Competition (VCIC) out of 56 MBA programs. Ryan speaks Spanish, Portuguese, and Italian and is learning robotics programming.
- Total investments:
- 20
- Last investment:
- Lead investor:
- 15%
Last updated:
For AI agents: llms.txt
Industries Ryan Gembala invests in
Stages Ryan Gembala invests in
Countries Ryan Gembala invests in
Contacts
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| Work email | ||
| Personal email | ||
| Work phone | ||
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Investment Focus
Industry
- Artificial Intelligence 5 (25%)
- Software 4 (20%)
- Robotics 3 (15%)
- Machine Learning 3 (15%)
- Security 2 (10%)
Stage
- Seed 8 (40%)
- Pre-Seed 4 (20%)
- Series A 4 (20%)
- Series B 1 (5%)
- Series C 1 (5%)
Investments
| Company | Description | Round | Links |
|---|---|---|---|
| Oway is a rideshare freight platform that uses AI to automatically coordinate and sell unused space in trucks to businesses at up to a 50% discount compared to traditional LTL freight shipping. It's a $100B problem in the US alone, with every year up to 50% of all the truck space in the country going empty or unused despite massive supplychain shortages.The American logistics industry is extremely fragmented with little automated coordination between carriers. Oway focuses on building an ecosystem that takes inefficiency (unused truck space) and turns it into a decentralized shipping platform that enables significantly faster and cheaper deliveries for small batch freight shipments up to 12 pallets. For carriers, integrating Oway can immediately increase annual revenues by up to 30% with almost no impact to existing delivery schedules.In a technical sense, Oway applies stochastic spread optimization and real-time liquidity modeling to dynamically price freight shipments, effectively functioning as a decentralized market maker optimizing expected value across variable supply constraints. It provides a simple UI and API for businesses to leverage this tool for any means. | $4M / Seed / Aug 22, 2025 | ||
| At Material, our mission is to revolutionize battery technology and 3D printing capabilities. We strive to surpass current lithium-ion battery standards by innovating and 3D printing batteries that exceed expectations while pioneering sodium-ion and solid-state electrolyte chemistries. Embracing free-form factor 3D printing, we aim to unleash thefull potential of battery design. | Pre-Seed / Jun 01, 2023 | ||
| Tenyx is a next generation of voice-based intelligent technologies using its patented AI technology. | $15M / Seed / May 10, 2022 | ||
| Treeswift utilizes robotic and machine learning technology to build forestry tools. | $4.8M / Seed / Mar 28, 2022 | ||
| Framework is an electronics company that repairs lightweight laptops and consumer electronics products. The company is building people and planet-friendly consumer electronics products that are designed to be easy to upgrade, customize and repair. Their first product is the Framework Laptop, which has received an incredible response from the pressand consumers (including recently landing on the cover of TIME's Best Inventions of 2021). | $18M / Series A / Feb 01, 2022 | ||
| Invisv combines deep research with practical experience to rethink and reshape privacy in society for communication technologies. | Pre-Seed / Nov 01, 2021 | ||
| Iron Ox is pioneering a sustainable and precise way of growing fresh produce, using robotics and plant science, to reduce agriculture’s impact on global climate. Iron Ox was established in 2015 and has greenhouses in Gilroy, CA and Lockhart, TX. | $53M / Series C / Sep 22, 2021 | ||
| Framework is an electronics company that repairs lightweight laptops and consumer electronics products. The company is building people and planet-friendly consumer electronics products that are designed to be easy to upgrade, customize and repair. Their first product is the Framework Laptop, which has received an incredible response from the pressand consumers (including recently landing on the cover of TIME's Best Inventions of 2021). | $9M / Seed / Jun 17, 2021 | ||
| Iron Ox is pioneering a sustainable and precise way of growing fresh produce, using robotics and plant science, to reduce agriculture’s impact on global climate. Iron Ox was established in 2015 and has greenhouses in Gilroy, CA and Lockhart, TX. | $20M / Series B / Sep 09, 2020 | ||
| Spiketrap is your AI-powered data partner to seamlessly collect, store, and visualize critical user-generated content from across the internet. We monitor, measure, and help you manage the ebbs and flows of unfiltered discussions in order to improve your development decisions.Every creative endeavor is unique, and each audience communicatesdifferently. Maximize your understanding of your audience with Spiketrap while increasing your time-to-action via data-driven decisions.It was founded in 2016 and headquartered in San Francisco, California. | $3M / Seed / Jul 01, 2020 | ||
| See all 20 investments → | |||
Co-Investors
About Pathbreaker Ventures
Pathbreaker Ventures is a pre-seed and seed-stage venture capital firm that invests in specialized teams building unique tech and IP in emerging areas of computer science. With a focus on emerging areas of computer science, Pathbreaker invests in specialized teams building differentiated products that seek to transform industries and lives.Founded in 2005, Pathbreaker Ventures is headquartered in San Francisco, California.
Pathbreaker Ventures Contacts
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Ryan Gembala
General Partner, Managing Partner & Founder
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FAQ
What does Ryan Gembala invest in?
Ryan Gembala invests primarily in Artificial Intelligence, Software and Robotics startups, most often at Seed and Pre-Seed stage. Most of the 20 investments tracked by Shizune back companies in United States. The Investment Focus section breaks down every industry, stage and country in the portfolio.
How do I contact Ryan Gembala?
Public channels for Ryan Gembala include LinkedIn, X (Twitter) 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 Ryan Gembala last invest?
The most recent investment recorded for Ryan Gembala closed in Aug 2025. Shizune tracks 20 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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