At Great North Ventures, we back founders who can turn new technology into measurable business results. As former operators ourselves, we’ve built and scaled companies through multiple technology cycles — and we know the difference between hype and execution.
With this in mind, we’ve sharpened our focus around two themes: Vertical AI and Embedded Finance. These are the areas where we see the biggest opportunity to build capital-efficient, defensible companies. Both reflect what we’ve seen in our portfolio — the companies performing best are those that automate industry-specific work and those that monetize workflows by moving money. They’re also consistent with broader market forces: investors are rewarding startups that show fast ROI and resilient unit economics, and customers prefer platforms that handle their daily work and embed the financial tools they need.
The question we ask is simple: where will the next generation of durable businesses be built?
Our answer: in industries where AI does real work — and where software also moves money.
Vertical AI — AI That Does the Work
Artificial intelligence is everywhere, but not all AI is equal. The most valuable applications today aren’t generic chatbots or broad platforms. They are vertical, industry-specific tools designed to solve concrete problems in daily operations.
Think about a property manager automatically coding invoices to the right projects, a healthcare system extracting terms from contracts, or a logistics platform triaging service tickets. Or a tenant-management agent that answers calls and schedules vendors, an accounting platform that reconciles charges in real time, or an insurer using AI to flag errors in claims before they pile up. These are repetitive, high-volume tasks that eat up time and create errors. Vertical AI solutions drop into the tools customers already use and start producing measurable results almost immediately — lower costs, fewer mistakes, faster response times.
In sectors from construction accounting to property management to healthcare and financial underwriting, the payoff is visible in weeks, not years. That speed of return, combined with the proprietary data these systems build over time, makes them both practical for customers and sustainable for investors.
Vertical AI creates sticky products with clear business outcomes. Customers feel the benefit quickly in lower costs, faster cycles, and fewer errors. For investors, these companies also build powerful moats: the more they’re used, the more proprietary data they generate, making it harder for competitors to catch up.
Our experience shows that startups focused on narrow, domain-specific use cases are the ones that win customer trust and compound into broader platforms.
Embedded Finance — Software That Moves Money
Our second pillar is Embedded Finance: software that doesn’t just organize work, but also moves the money flowing through it.
At its core, Embedded Finance means integrating payments, lending, cards, wallets, or insurance directly into the workflow of an application. Instead of sending users to a bank or third-party provider, these financial services are built right in.
This capability is powerful for two reasons. First, it creates new revenue streams. Software that moves money captures interchange, lending fees, or float that would otherwise go elsewhere. Second, it makes the software much stickier for users. When customers rely on a platform to run their operations and to move their funds, they’re far less likely to churn.
We’ve seen this dynamic play out across our portfolio: the strongest companies were those that layered on financial products to expand margins and deepen loyalty. For investors, Embedded Finance means higher revenue per customer, more predictable unit economics, and stronger resilience.
Consider the difference between helping a contractor log expenses and issuing the card they use to buy materials, with spend controls tied directly to the project. A field-services platform might go beyond scheduling jobs by also paying contractors instantly. Marketplaces can create deeper loyalty by offering next-day payouts or working-capital advances based on real sales history. Professional-services software increasingly embeds bill pay and lending, so invoices reconcile automatically. And industry-specific platforms are now adding credit tools that let small businesses secure financing for payroll or inventory without ever leaving the application.
In each case, what starts as a workflow tool becomes a financial hub, binding customers more tightly to the platform and creating new streams of high-margin revenue.
Why These Two Fit Together
Vertical AI and Embedded Finance are compelling on their own:
- Vertical AI creates the workflows and the proprietary data.
- Embedded Finance monetizes those workflows and locks in customer relationships.
The result is a capital-efficient business model: fast ROI for customers, high-margin revenue for the platform, and durable moats built on both data and money movement. In a market where efficiency and early traction matter more than ever, this pairing offers the strongest foundation for growth.
Our Approach
We back software that saves time and moves money. Vertical AI and Embedded Finance do both. Together, they create high-leverage business models with fast ROI, strong margins and built-in defensibility. These are the models we believe will drive durable, capital-efficient growth — and deliver real returns.
