Dr. Jeannette zu Fürstenberg is Managing Director of the global VC firm General Catalyst (GC) and in charge of its European business. Jeannette is also Founding Partner of La Famiglia VC, one of Europe’s most distinguished early-stage Venture Capital platforms connecting the established industry and the start-up ecosystem. Today, La Famiglia VC is the nucleus of General Catalyst's Global Seed Investment Program.

Jeannette embodies the role of a passionate generalist with a founder-led approach. Her investments are driven by her vision of a resilient, more prosperous Europe, with technology as a key driver of transformation which is also reflected in her areas of expertise which include AI, climate, industrial transformation, defense and traditional software-centric opportunities.

Jeannette’s early investment wins at La Famiglia include companies such as Deel, Forto, Helsing, Mistral, and Personio. Having supported their journey since the earliest stages of ideation, she also serves on the board of Helsing, Mistral, and Applied Intuition.

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.

She is a driving force behind the EU AI Champions Initiative (EU AICI), which brings together leading European companies to accelerate AI adoption in critical industries, and thereby building competitive European technology champions. In addition Jeannette co-authored the SPARTA Paper (Strategic Protection and Advanced Resilience Technology Alliance), a foundational vision for the future of European defense tech.

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