Inside Emend Vision Fund: Investing in the Future of Industrial Transformation

April 11, 2025

Emend Fund – an impact fund investing in industrial transformation
emendfund.com

Insights shared by
Richard Egli
General Partner with
the Emend Vision Fund

The industrial world is undergoing a once-in-a-generation reset. From shifting climate mandates to supply chain disruptions and aging infrastructure, global industries are being forced to evolve. But who’s backing the early-stage founders building the technologies that will drive that change?

Richard Egli is a General Partner with the Emend Vision Fund, a purpose-driven venture capital fund that’s laser-focused on helping early-stage companies transform large industries with innovation.

We sat down with Richard in Vancouver BC to explore the Emend Fund thesis, strategy, and vision for the future of industrial transformation.

Why Emend and why now?

What inspired you to launch Emend Vision Fund?

The industrial sector is filled with hard problems—and incredible potential. We’ve spent over a decade building and backing technology companies, and we saw a huge opportunity to step it up with a fund purpose-built for this moment. Every major industry is under pressure to decarbonize, change, and rethink how it operates. Emend exists to back the founders and companies that are leading that charge.

What gap in the market are you aiming to fill?

There’s plenty of capital for later-stage and growth companies, but very little for early-stage companies working in climate-tech and industrial sectors. These founders need more than just capital—they need strategic partners who understand how to navigate scaling a world-class company. That’s exactly what we offer.

Why is now the right time for a fund like this?

The timing couldn’t be better. From global climate agreements to domestic industrial policy and consumer preferences, all signals still point to massive shifts ahead. Legacy players are struggling to adapt, and regulators are pushing hard for change. At the same time, technical innovation—especially in AI, energy, robotics, agriculture and materials—is finally maturing enough to make a difference. This is a rare convergence of urgency, policy, and capability.

The Emend Thesis: Where and How We Invest

What does “industrial transformation” mean to Emend?

It’s about radically improving the systems that underpin our world—how we make things, move things, power things, and feed people. Our portfolio spans areas like clean energy, robotics, industrial automation, critical infrastructure, food systems, and water treatment. We’re focused on solutions that are not only innovative but also implementable and practical in the real world.

What kind of companies do you invest in, and at what stage?

We invest at the Seed and Series A stage, where our value-add is strongest. Our initial checks range from $500K to $1.5M, and we often lead deals. We also reserve significant capital for follow-on rounds. We aim to invest in 18–25 companies for the fund—enough to diversify, but few enough to give each one meaningful support.

What are your focus areas?

We’ve defined three core investment pillars:

  1. Industrial Transformation – Innovation for major sectors including: mining, energy, construction, advanced manufacturing, robotics, and forestry.
  2. Big Data and Critical Infrastructure – AI-driven efficiency and optimization, cyber security, and critical infrastructure tools.
  3. Clean Water and Food Security – Next generation water treatment, regenerative agriculture, aquaculture, and food production.

These sectors are under pressure and ripe for disruption—and we’re already seeing incredible founders tackling these problems in bold ways.

What do you look for in founders?

Conviction, drive, and coachability. We gravitate toward technical or domain-expert founders who deeply understand their problem space. Many of them are first-time founders, which is fine—we love helping them evolve into world-class CEOs. The non-negotiables are grit, adaptability, and an obsession with the customer.

How Emend Adds Value

How does Emend differentiate from other early-stage VCs?

We’re not tourists. Our team has decades of combined experience in cleantech, venture, and industrial sectors. We’ve produced top quartile returns for the past fifteen years. We’ve built and supported companies through the Alacrity Canada platform that have driven over $462M in global exports and generated over $1.5B in enterprise value for companies we’ve founded. That operational track record and experience shows up in how we work with founders.

What kind of support do you provide beyond capital?

We’re deeply hands-on and passionate about growing startups. At the early stage you have to be. We help companies:

  • Set strategy for the company and build product/revenue roadmaps
  • Navigate early customer acquisition
  • Structure boards of directors and governance
  • Secure government grants and incentives
  • Prepare for follow-on rounds and make sure companies are investor ready
  • Connect with international markets and industrial partners to land deals globally

We also have a global commercialization network and years of experience helping early-stage companies turn pilots into meaningful revenue.

A New Model for Risk and Return

How do you think about risk in these kinds of investments?

We embrace complexity, but we don’t only chase moonshots. Our model is to de-risk early by focusing on commercial traction and market timing. We’re not afraid of capex light hardware or regulated industries—as long as the path to revenue is clear and the founders understand their ecosystem. Throughout our fundraising journey, many investors have asked us what the discount to returns is for doing the right thing for the environment. In reality, there is no discount, there is actually a premium because this is the best venture opportunity of our lifetime.

Is Emend an impact fund or a venture fund?

We’re a venture fund, full stop—but our thesis is built around solving big problems. Climate change, infrastructure, water, food—these are trillion-dollar markets in transition. The winners will generate massive returns and positive impact. For us, those two outcomes go hand-in-hand.

What’s unique about your deal flow?

We have proprietary pipelines built through Alacrity, global trade partnerships, and years of mentoring early-stage companies in Canada and abroad. We see deals early, often before a company even starts fundraising, and we help shape them into venture-backable businesses.

How do you work with LPs beyond financial reporting?

Many of our LPs are industrial operators, entrepreneurs or family offices who want more than just returns. We appreciate their insight and real world market knowledge. We offer access to early-stage innovation, insights into market trends, and the ability to contribute strategically through advisoring and co-investing. Many end up partnering with portfolio companies directly through sales collaborations and investments.

Looking Ahead

What’s your vision for Emend over the next 5–10 years?

We want to be known as the first call for founders building the future of industry—and the first call for investors looking to back real, meaningful innovation. We see a future where Emend-backed companies become leaders in energy, infrastructure, manufacturing, and sustainability. If we’ve helped shape cleaner, smarter industries and a more resilient world, that’s success for us.

What’s your message to founders in this space?

If you’re building something bold, technical, and grounded in real-world impact—reach out. Especially if it’s a little messy, a little hard, or a little overlooked. That’s our favorite kind of problem. Let’s build it together.
For more information on the Emend Vision Fund please visit emendfund.com or email rich@emendfund.com.

Spotlight on an EMEND Fund Company

GeoTeknica — Leading the Charge in Emissions Reduction

Elimination of methane emissions from human activity has become a major priority in the fight against climate change. GeoTeknica is a photonics company that introduces a game-changing innovation in methane leak detection: an affordable laser-based camera that detects very small methane leaks across a wide field of view.

Our technology aligns perfectly with the new global guidelines for methane mitigation, targeting the lucrative market of continuous emissions monitoring. By 2050, the automated emissions monitoring market is expected to encompass over 1,100,000 facilities, presenting a strategic opportunity exceeding $1 trillion. Despite competition, GeoTeknica’s disruptive technology stands out with superior performance and scalability while offering an order-of-magnitude lower cost.

GeoTeknica was established in 2021 following a successful year-long collaboration with one of the Oil and Gas super-majors. Dr. Thomas Darcie, formerly VP of AT&T Bell Labs and one of the key inventors of laser systems used by all cable-television providers worldwide to provide broadband Internet services, saw an opportunity to adapt a proven telecom solution for gas spectroscopy.

Building on a long-term partnership with Alacrity Canada, business savvy from Wesley Clover’s Owen Matthews and support from the Emend Fund, GeoTeknica is poised to lead in the fight to reduce emissions while capturing significant market share in this rapidly expanding industry.