Jeannette zu Fürstenberg

Who they are

Jeannette zu Fürstenberg is President and Managing Director at General Catalyst — founded La Famiglia VC in 2016, co-authored the SPARTA Papers on European strategic autonomy, and won the German Business Book Prize 2025.

Person

Jeannette holds a PhD in Philosophy and Entrepreneurship from the Free University of Berlin — an unusual foundation for a VC career, but it signals someone who thinks in frameworks, not just deal flow. She founded La Famiglia VC in Berlin in 2016, building it into a fund that connected established European industrials with digital disruptors, and ran it as Co-Founder and Managing Director until General Catalyst acquired it in June 2024. She joined General Catalyst in 2023/2024 to lead its European business as President and Managing Director. Alongside the fund, she launched Fürstenberg Zeitgenössisch in 2011, a foundation and grant program supporting young and diverse contemporary artists — still active. She also co-founded the EU AI Champions Initiative, a coalition of over 140 European companies working to accelerate AI adoption, and co-authored the SPARTA Papers on European defense and strategic autonomy for the Munich Security Conference. Her book 'Wie gut wir sind, zeigt sich in Krisenzeiten' won the German Business Book Prize 2025, and she publishes in Wirtschaftsdienst journal. The through-line is consistently the same bet: Europe must own its technological and strategic future, and capital is the instrument.

Company

General Catalyst is in the middle of its most ambitious expansion yet — in March 2026 it entered talks to raise about $10 billion in new funding to grow its early-stage venture and growth funds, aiming to rival a16z. Its April 2026 acquisition of Summa Health hospital in Akron, Ohio — the first time a VC firm has purchased a hospital outright — signals it is remaking itself into something broader than a traditional venture fund. The firm's Customer Value Fund, a non-dilutive financing vehicle that achieved investment-grade credit rating and funds startup customer acquisition costs, is the structural innovation behind recent deals: in June 2026 it committed $540 million through that vehicle alongside a $150 million Series D it led for Factorial at a $2.5 billion valuation. Portfolio company Anthropic raised a Series G at a $380 billion valuation in April 2026, with revenue growing from $1 billion to over $20 billion run rate in fifteen months — one of the most dramatic marks in the firm's history.

Market

General Catalyst manages over $43 billion in assets as of December 2024 and has backed more than 800 companies including 98 unicorns, with positions in Airbnb, Stripe, Canva, Anthropic, and Anduril. Its primary competitors are Andreessen Horowitz and Y Combinator, with whom it frequently co-leads large rounds. Geopolitical dynamics — US-China technology competition, export controls, and the push for European and Indian industrial sovereignty — are actively shaping where the firm deploys capital, with a stated 'global resilience' thesis driving new focus on manufacturing, defence, and deeptech.

Network

Jeannette operates at the intersection of European tech capital and political power — she co-organized a European Digital Sovereignty Summit alongside German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and French President Emmanuel Macron, and moderated an Applied AI roundtable hosted by Macron and German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier. Her board seats at Mistral AI and Helsing put her directly inside two of Europe's most strategically significant AI and defence-tech companies. Within General Catalyst she works directly under CEO Hemant Taneja and alongside colleague Thomas Schardt on the European business.

Hemant Taneja· CEO, General Catalyst
Arthur Mensch· CEO, Mistral AI
Roland Busch· CEO, Siemens
Christian Klein· CEO, SAP
Thomas Schardt· General Catalyst colleague
Friedrich Merz· German Chancellor

How they likely show up

Founded La Famiglia in 2016 and ran it for seven years before the GC acquisition → thinks in fund cycles and multi-year relationship arcs, not quarterly deal volume.
PhD in Philosophy alongside VC practice → likely stress-tests frameworks and first principles before committing; expect conceptual precision in conversation.
Active across Munich Security Conference, BDI, Resilience Conference, and DLD — and co-organized summits with heads of state → operates at the politics-capital interface deliberately, not incidentally.
Book won German Business Book Prize 2025 and publishes in academic journals alongside practitioner conferences → comfortable in both registers; will shift between theory and deal specifics without warning.
Founded Fürstenberg Zeitgenössisch alongside a full-time VC career → high agency, likely runs multiple tracks simultaneously and finds single-focus roles constraining.
Co-authored SPARTA Papers on European defense and strategic autonomy → treats geopolitics as an investment thesis input, not background noise.

Conversation tips

→ Reference the SPARTA Papers or the EU AI Champions Initiative specifically — she's built intellectual frameworks around European sovereignty and will engage substantively if you've read them.
→ Ask about the La Famiglia-to-General Catalyst transition as a strategic move, not just a career step — she orchestrated it and will have a considered view on what it enables.
→ Don't treat her board seats at Mistral and Helsing as decorative — they are her front-line bets on European AI and defence; questions about those companies will land well.
→ Her book won the German Business Book Prize in 2025 — if you've read it or can reference its thesis ('how we show ourselves in times of crisis'), she'll notice.

Toolbox

Openers

Open on the SPARTA Papers — she co-authored strategic autonomy papers for Europe in defense and resilience for the Munich Security Conference, a rare move for a VC and a signal of where she thinks the real stakes are.
Lead with the Mistral and Helsing board seats together — sitting on both the AI model company and the AI defense company simultaneously is a specific thesis about where European sovereign tech converges.
Reference her German Business Book Prize win in 2025 for 'Wie gut wir sind, zeigt sich in Krisenzeiten' — it's her most public intellectual statement and a direct signal of what she thinks capital and leadership are actually for.

Discovery questions

The Customer Value Fund is a structurally unusual instrument for a VC — how does it change the relationship with European founders compared to traditional equity?
You've been on both sides of the La Famiglia-to-General Catalyst transition — what does the acquisition model unlock for Europe that a standalone fund couldn't?
With board seats at both Mistral and Helsing, you're sitting at the junction of AI and European defense — how do you think about where those two converge into a single investment category?

Avoid

Don't frame European tech as permanently behind the US — she has spent a decade arguing the opposite and built institutions around that conviction; leading with that assumption will close the conversation.

Make it yours