Emerging Markets Fund

Emerging Markets Fund

INVESTMENT OBJECTIVE

The Emerging Markets Fund seeks long-term capital appreciation by investing primarily in equity securities in emerging markets around the world.

FUND FEES AND EXPENSES

This table describes the fees and expenses that you may pay if you buy and hold shares of the Fund. You may qualify for Class A sales charge discounts if you and your family (includes spouse and children under age 21) invest, or agree to invest in the future, at least $25,000, in the aggregate, in Classes A and C of the VanEck Funds. More information about these and other discounts is available from your financial professional and in the “Shareholder Information—Sales Charges” section on page 32 of this prospectus, in the “Availability of Discounts” section on page 50 of the Fund’s Statement of Additional Information (“SAI”) and, with respect to purchases of shares through specific intermediaries, in Appendix A to this prospectus, entitled “Intermediary Sales Charge Discounts and Waivers”.

Shareholder Fees (fees paid directly from your investment)

Shareholder Fees - Emerging Markets Fund	Class A		Class C	Class I	Class Y
Maximum Sales Charge (load) imposed on purchases (as a percentage of offering price)	5.75%		none	none	none
Maximum Deferred Sales Charge (load) (as a percentage of the lesser of the net asset value or purchase price)	none	[1]	1.00%	none	none

Annual Fund Operating Expenses (expenses that you pay each year as a percentage of the value of your investment)

Annual Fund Operating Expenses - Emerging Markets Fund		Class A	Class C	Class I	Class Y
Management Fees		0.75%	0.75%	0.75%	0.75%
Distribution and/or Service (12b-1) Fees		0.25%	1.00%	none	none
Other Expenses		0.53%	0.57%	0.41%	0.46%
Total Annual Fund Operating Expenses		1.53%	2.32%	1.16%	1.21%
Fee Waivers and/or Expense Reimbursements	[1]	none	none	(0.16%)	(0.11%)
Total Annual Fund Operating Expenses After Fee Waiver and/or Expense Reimbursements		1.53%	2.32%	1.00%	1.10%

Expense Example

The following example is intended to help you compare the cost of investing in the Fund with the cost of investing in other mutual funds. The example assumes that you invest $10,000 in the Fund for the time periods indicated and then either redeem all of your shares at the end of these periods or continue to hold them. The example also assumes that your investment has a 5% return each year and that the Fund’s operating expenses remain the same, and applies fee waivers and/or expense reimbursements, if any, for the periods indicated above under “Annual Fund Operating Expenses”. Although your actual expenses may be higher or lower, based on these assumptions, your costs would be:

Sold

Expense Example - Emerging Markets Fund - USD ($)	1 Year	3 Years	5 Years	10 Years
Class A	722	1,031	1,361	2,294
Class C	335	724	1,240	2,656
Class I	102	353	623	1,395
Class Y	112	373	654	1,456

Held

Expense Example No Redemption - Emerging Markets Fund - USD ($)	1 Year	3 Years	5 Years	10 Years
Class A	722	1,031	1,361	2,294
Class C	235	724	1,240	2,656
Class I	102	353	623	1,395
Class Y	112	373	654	1,456

PORTFOLIO TURNOVER

The Fund pays transaction costs, such as commissions, when it buys and sells securities (or “turns over” its portfolio). A higher portfolio turnover rate may indicate that the Fund pays higher transaction costs and may result in higher taxes when Fund shares are held in a taxable account. These costs, which are not reflected in annual fund operating expenses or in the example, affect the Fund’s performance. During the most recent fiscal year, the Fund’s portfolio turnover rate was 51% of the average value of its portfolio.

PRINCIPAL INVESTMENT STRATEGIES

Under normal conditions, the Fund invests at least 80% of its net assets in securities of companies that are organized in, maintain at least 50% of their assets in, or derive at least 50% of their revenues from, emerging market countries. The Adviser has broad discretion to identify countries that it considers to qualify as emerging markets. The Adviser selects emerging market countries that the Fund will invest in based on the Adviser’s evaluation of economic fundamentals, legal structure, political developments and other specific factors the Adviser believes to be relevant.

Utilizing qualitative and quantitative measures, the Fund’s portfolio manager seeks to invest in reasonably-priced companies that have strong structural growth potential. The portfolio manager seeks attractive investment opportunities in all areas of emerging markets, and utilizes a flexible investment approach across all market capitalizations.

The Fund’s holdings may include issues denominated in currencies of emerging market countries, investment companies (like country funds) that invest in emerging market countries, and American Depositary Receipts, and similar types of investments, representing emerging market securities.

The Fund may invest up to 20% of its net assets in securities issued by other investment companies, including exchange-traded funds (“ETFs”). The Fund may also invest in money market funds, but these investments are not subject to this limitation. The Fund may invest in ETFs to participate in, or gain rapid exposure to, certain market sectors, or when direct investments in certain countries are not permitted.

PRINCIPAL RISKS

There is no assurance that the Fund will achieve its investment objective. The Fund’s share price and return will fluctuate with changes in the market value of the Fund’s portfolio securities. Accordingly, an investment in the Fund involves the risk of losing money.

Chinese Issuers. Investing in securities of Chinese companies involves certain risks and considerations not typically associated with investing in securities of U.S. issuers, including, among others, (i) more frequent (and potentially widespread) trading suspensions and government interventions with respect to Chinese issuers, resulting in lack of liquidity and in price volatility, (ii) currency revaluations and other currency exchange rate fluctuations or blockage, (iii) the nature and extent of intervention by the Chinese government in the Chinese securities markets, whether such intervention will continue and the impact of such intervention or its discontinuation, (iv) the risk of nationalization or expropriation of assets, (v) the risk that the Chinese government may decide not to continue to support economic reform programs, (vi) limitations on the use of brokers, (vii) higher rates of inflation, (viii) greater political, economic and social uncertainty, (ix) market volatility caused by any potential regional or territorial conflicts or natural disasters and (x) the risk of increased trade tariffs, embargoes and other trade limitations.

Direct Investments. Direct investments may involve a high degree of business and financial risk that can result in substantial losses. Because of the absence of any public trading market for these investments, the Fund may take longer to liquidate these positions than would be the case for publicly traded securities. Direct investments are generally considered illiquid and will be aggregated with other illiquid investments for purposes of the limitation on illiquid investments.

Emerging Market Securities. Emerging market securities typically present even greater exposure to the risks described under “Foreign Securities” and may be particularly sensitive to certain economic changes. Emerging market securities are exposed to a number of risks that may make these investments volatile in price or difficult to trade.

Foreign Currency Transactions. An investment transacted in a foreign currency may lose value due to fluctuations in the rate of exchange. These fluctuations can make the return on an investment go up or down, entirely apart from the quality or performance of the investment itself.

Foreign Securities. Foreign investments are subject to greater risks than U.S. domestic investments. These additional risks may include exchange rate fluctuations and exchange controls; less publicly available information; more volatile or less liquid securities markets; and the possibility of arbitrary action by foreign governments, or political, economic or social instability. Foreign companies also may be subject to significantly higher levels of taxation than U.S. companies, including potentially confiscatory levels of taxation, thereby reducing the earnings potential of such foreign companies.

Investments in Other Investment Companies. The Fund’s investment in another investment company may subject the Fund indirectly to the underlying risks of the investment company. The Fund also will bear its share of the underlying investment company’s fees and expenses, which are in addition to the Fund’s own fees and expenses.

Investments through Stock Connect. The Fund’s investments in Chinese A-shares through Stock Connect will be subject to investment quotas and trading restrictions which may pose risks to the Fund. In addition, uncertainty in the People’s Republic of China (“PRC”) tax rules may result in unexpected tax liabilities for the Fund.

Management. Investment decisions made by the Adviser in seeking to achieve the Fund’s investment objective may not produce the returns expected by the Adviser, may cause a decline in the value of the securities held by the Fund and, in turn, cause the Fund’s shares to lose value or underperform other funds with similar investment objectives.

Market. Market risk refers to the risk that the market prices of securities that the Fund holds will rise or fall, sometimes rapidly or unpredictably. In general, equity securities tend to have greater price volatility than debt securities.

Operational. The Fund is exposed to operational risk arising from a number of factors, including but not limited to, human error, processing and communication errors, errors of the Fund’s service providers, counterparties or other third-parties, failed or inadequate processes and technology or system failures.

Sectors. The Fund may be subject to greater risks and market fluctuations than a fund whose portfolio has exposure to a broader range of sectors. The Fund may be susceptible to financial, economic, political or market events, as well as government regulation, impacting the financial services, information technology and consumer discretionary sectors.

Small- and Medium-Capitalization Companies. Securities of small- and medium-sized companies often have greater price volatility, lower trading volume and less liquidity than larger more established companies. The stocks of small- and medium-sized companies may have returns that vary, sometimes significantly, from the overall stock market.

PERFORMANCE

The following chart and table provide some indication of the risks of investing in the Fund by showing changes in the Fund’s performance from year to year and by showing how the Fund’s average annual total returns compare with those of a broad measure of market performance. For instance, the MSCI Emerging Markets Investable Markets Index is an all market capitalization index that is designed to measure equity market performance of emerging markets. The MSCI Emerging Markets Index consists of the following 23 emerging market country indices: Brazil, Chile, China, Colombia, Czech Republic, Egypt, Greece, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, Peru, Philippines, Russia, Poland, Qatar, South Africa, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey and United Arab Emirates. The Fund’s past performance (before and after taxes) is not necessarily an indication of how the Fund will perform in the future. The annual returns in the bar chart are for the Fund’s Class A shares and do not reflect sales loads. If sales loads were reflected, returns would be lower than those shown.

Additionally, large purchases and/or redemptions of shares of a class, relative to the amount of assets represented by the class, may cause the annual returns for each class to differ. Updated performance information for the Fund is available on the VanEck website at vaneck.com.

CLASS A: Annual Total Returns (%) as of 12/31

Best Quarter:	+59.06%	2Q ’09
Worst Quarter:	-38.59%	4Q ’08

Average Annual Total Returns as of 12/31/16

Average Annual Returns - Emerging Markets Fund		1 Year	5 Years	10 Years	Life of Class	Inception Date
Class A		(6.18%)	3.33%	0.55%		Dec. 20, 1993
Class C		(2.26%)	3.67%	0.36%		Oct. 03, 2003
Class I		0.05%	5.07%		(1.53%)	Dec. 31, 2007
Class Y		(0.03%)	4.87%		1.87%	Apr. 30, 2010
After Taxes on Distributions | Class A	[1]	(6.21%)	3.30%	0.19%
After Taxes on Distributions and Sale of Fund Shares | Class A		(3.48%)	2.58%	0.44%
MSCI Emerging Markets Investable Markets Index (reflects no deduction for fees, expenses or taxes)	[2]	10.30%	1.90%	2.40%
MSCI Emerging Markets Index (reflects no deduction for fees, expenses or taxes)		11.60%	1.64%	2.17%

[1] A contingent deferred sales charge for Class A shares of 1.00% for one year applies to redemptions of qualified commissionable shares purchased at or above the $1 million breakpoint level.

[1] Van Eck Associates Corporation (the "Adviser") has agreed to waive fees and/or pay Fund expenses to the extent necessary to prevent the operating expenses of the Fund (excluding acquired fund fees and expenses, interest expense, trading expenses, dividends and interest payments on securities sold short, taxes and extraordinary expenses) from exceeding 1.60% for Class A, 2.50% for Class C, 1.00% for Class I, and 1.10% for Class Y of the Fund's average daily net assets per year until May 1, 2018. During such time, the expense limitation is expected to continue until the Board of Trustees acts to discontinue all or a portion of such expense limitation.

[1] After tax returns are calculated using the historical highest individual federal marginal income tax rates and do not reflect the impact of state and local taxes. These returns are shown for one class of shares only; after tax-returns for the other classes may vary. Actual after-tax returns depend on your individual tax situation and may differ from those shown in the preceding table. The after-tax return information shown above does not apply to Fund shares held through a tax-deferred account, such as a 401(k) plan or Investment Retirement Account.

[2] On April 1, 2017, the MSCI Emerging Markets Investable Markets Index (the "MSCI EM IMI") replaced the MSCI Emerging Markets Index as the Fund's broad-based benchmark index. The Fund changed indexes as it believes the MSCI EM IMI is more representative of the emerging markets all capitalization universe.