Speakers

Dr. Jeannette zu Fürstenberg is Managing Director of the global investment and transformation company, General Catalyst (GC), where she leads European operations and investing, and drives global expansion. Jeannette is also Founding Partner of La Famiglia, one of Europe’s most distinguished early-stage Venture Capital platforms connecting the established industry and the start-up ecosystem. Since La Famiglia’s merger with General Catalyst, Jeannette’s remit has expanded from seed to growth and beyond, on a global level.

She embodies the role of a passionate generalist with a founder-centric approach. Her investments are driven by her vision of a resilient, more prosperous Europe, with technology as a key driver of transformation - across AI, industrial transformation, defense, and traditional software-centric opportunities. Jeannette’s early investments include companies such as Deel, Helsing, Mistral, Ramp, Legora, Applied Intuition, Groq, Personio, and Dwelly. She also serves on the boards of the two of the highest-valued European AI companies, Mistral and Helsing, after having supported their journey since the earliest stages of ideation.

Beyond her investment activities, Jeannette is an active member of several advisory boards including the Board of Governors of the Kiel Institute for the World Economy (ifw). She is deeply committed to strengthening the connections between the tech ecosystem and established industries. Her engagement also extends into the political sphere, where she actively contributes to shaping a more enabling environment for entrepreneurship in Europe, notably contributing to the debate on the EU AI Act and addressing several socio-economic issues related to European prosperity.

In her award-winning book, Europe’s New Renaissance, she explores how Europe can reinvent itself by drawing on its enduring strengths in science, innovation, and industry. It is both a personal call to action and a bold contribution to public discourse on Europe’s future.

In 2011 she initiated “Fürstenberg Zeitgenössisch”, a contemporary art foundation and artist grant program. Jeannette holds a PhD in Philosophy and Entrepreneurship from Freie Universität Berlin.