La Famiglia

Today, we are excited to announce that La Famiglia is joining forces with our long-time friends at General Catalyst to turbocharge technological value creation in Europe and take our seed investment approach to the global stage.    When setting out to start La Famiglia in 2015 and scaling the platform over the past years, unlocking the transformational potential of the European continent has been our North Star. We are now opening a new chapter of radical collaboration by uniting with General Catalyst to build Europe’s leading transformation platform to drive ambitious and enduring positive change. For La Famiglia, the partnership adds financial and platform resources to invest into the most promising European founders, turbocharging our investment thesis of creating meaningful change and real value by connecting the old and the new. For GC, this partnership brings the opportunity to join forces with a truly European seed platform while allowing to further build out its creation offering in Europe through the incubation of ambitious companies alongside experienced industry experts from La Famiglia’s network. The La Famiglia brand will form the base for GC’s global seed program. Serving founders will remain our top priority, and we will be able to provide even greater support and expertise to our joint - existing and future - portfolio. General Catalyst is an incredibly ambitious firm that enables entrepreneurs to drive powerful, positive change that endures. As deeply mission-driven organizations, General Catalyst and La Famiglia share a core belief system. This was a hugely important part of our decision to join forces, and we believe it will be a big contributing factor to our future success. We are particularly excited to work in close union with the amazing London-based team: Chris Bischoff, Zeynep Yavuz, Juliet Bailin, and Alexandre Momeni. La Famiglia is built on the vision of a resilient, more prosperous Europe, with technology as a key driver of transformation. Joining forces with GC gives us a great sense of opportunity in this endeavor of enduring ambition. A big thank you to our trusted LPs and amazing founders who form such an important part of this journey. Let’s go! 👨👩👧👦🗽 CC: Jeannette zu Fürstenberg, Judith Dada, Hemant Taneja, Chris Bischoff

Congratulations to our La Famiglia portfolio company Bling on closing their $12M Series A round! Upwards and onwards 🚀

New addition to the family - a warm welcome to Venture Highway We are thrilled to see Venture Highway join the General Catalyst family! This partnership marks a significant milestone in our shared mission to support visionary founders and drive transformative innovation. At La Famiglia, we deeply resonate with the commitment to nurturing early-stage talent and fostering global collaboration. Together, we are poised to create even greater impact across continents, connecting the dots between Europe, India, and the US. Congratulations to Neeraj Arora, Priya Mohan, and the entire Venture Highway team on this exciting new chapter. We look forward to working together on the incredible opportunities and innovations that lie ahead. “Combining our US seed team with Venture Highway in India and La Famiglia in Europe, we are committing deeply to becoming great at supporting the world's best founders at the earliest stages.” -GC’s CEO, Hemant Taneja. We’re energized to be on this journey to drive enduring transformation together. Learn more (full piece linked in comments) ↓  

🌍 Let’s make Europe the center of the global “RenAIssance”! Mistral AI is pioneering an open future for frontier artificial intelligence, and we are expanding that mission today through a €600M Series B co-led by General Catalyst and DST Global. Mistral’s leadership in open-source AI has set new standards across the performance-cost frontier, catalyzed product innovation and industry transformation, and bolstered resilience on a national, regional, and global scale. We’re incredibly proud of the team that Arthur Mensch, Guillaume Lample, and Timothee Lacroix have built. Their passion, vision, and dedication are inspiring and renAIssance-like. As we progress on this exciting journey, we are eager for what the future holds. Let’s continue our support and watch this incredible mission flourish for years to come! 🚀 cc Jeannette zu Fürstenberg, Hemant Taneja, Alexandre Momeni, General Catalyst

We believe Europe faces a once-in-a-generation opportunity to supercharge its economy and build resilience by modernizing critical infrastructure 🇪🇺 In our latest piece, we explore our Global Resilience thesis through the lens of the European market. Within, we share our view on Europe’s strengths, present its challenges, and shed light on the technological opportunities to chart a clear path toward European Resilience.  Here are some key opportunities for innovation: 1. Technologies to enable the energy transition Many of these technologies—including wind generation, biofuels, carbon capture technologies, alternative proteins, and electric vehicles—already exist; however, a huge infusion of capital and patience is required to commercialize and scale these solutions for mass adoption. We are interested in technologies that bridge the transition period of climate-related innovations to achieve self-sustaining unit economics, enabling them to thrive in the free market without reliance on subsidies, for example. 2. Modernization through automation and electrification  We believe there is incredible potential to drive new value in industrial categories. General Catalyst has the privilege of backing visionary European companies and global startups that are bringing their technologies to Europe. From our perspective, there are three primary ways in which innovators are poised to help industrial incumbents in Europe modernize, boost efficiency, and become more competitive in the upcoming years. 3. AI for defense  We believe it’s vital to bring AI defense applications to Europe. Our portfolio company, Helsing, is a leader in defense tech; its platform boosts defense and national security for liberal democracies using live data. Helsing is a software-first company in a traditionally hardware-led industry. By rapidly bringing its software capabilities to market, Helsing has secured program-of-record partnerships with multiple European governments, including Germany, France, and Ukraine. We’re optimistic about a more resilient and prosperous Europe and are proud to support some of the most ambitious technical founders in AI! CC Paul, Paula, Hemant, Alexa, Teresa, Genevieve, Will, Matthew, smalt, Marius, Khurram, Alsym Energy, Mukesh, Rahul, Fever, Klas, Ron, Ruben, PhysicsX, Jacomo, EthonAI, Julian, Bernhard, Collaborative Robotics, Brad, Torsten, Gundbert

🇪🇺 Reflecting on a Milestone Discussion on the Future of European AI 🇪🇺 Yesterday, I had the distinct honor of moderating a transformative roundtable discussion initiated by President Emmanuel Macron and Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier Bundespräsidialamt. This gathering brought together influential French and German business leaders, distinguished scientists, and key policymakers. Our focus? Charting the path for Europe’s leadership in artificial intelligence and technology. The dialogue was rich and insightful, addressing pivotal questions: What does Europe need to excel in AI competitiveness? How can we attract and retain top talent? How can we strengthen European resilience and competitiveness This was more than a conversation; it was a reaffirmation of the deep friendship between Germany and France, a testament to our shared commitment to strengthening our liberal democracies and bolstering our competitive edge through cooperation. We explored the potential of creating a pan-European AI initiative, discussing the essential ingredients needed for such a venture, including governmental support in research and talent mobility. The outcome is clear: Europe faces real challenges, but also unprecedented opportunities. By uniting our efforts, we can shape a resilient continent that thrives on unique, cutting-edge technology. That way, Europe can become a pioneer of digital transformation. Thank you to President Macron and Federal President Steinmeier for championing this cause and to all participants for their valuable contributions, Michael Backes, Katharina Hölzle, Christian Müller, Cedrik Neike, Bastian Nominacher, Dr. Gundbert Scherf, Susanne Wiegand. Together, we are paving the way for a brighter, tech-driven future for Europe.

Jeannette sat down with Handelsblatt Deputy Editor-in-Chief Peter Brors to discuss the most pressing issues and opportunities facing Europe and highlighted her key takeaways in her post 🇪🇺

Berlin was on fire! Zurich next! 🇨🇭🇨🇭🇨🇭 ⏭️ Over 100 builders showed up at our last AI Tinkerers event in Berlin, with 12 folks showcasing projects ranging from personal assistants to AI home automations: 1. Reet Kanjilal: Document AI agent 2. Tevfik Aloglu: Personal assistant https://www.gertylabs.com/ 3. Viktor Shcherban: Using AI to help refugees navigate German bureaucracy https://askschmidt.de/ 4. Daniel A.: AutoRAG https://lnkd.in/gzwGXrKf 5. Andrey Cheptsov: Open-source engine for provisioning AI infra https://lnkd.in/dvzK9mpJ 6. Jan Korenek: AI generations of release letters from German hospitals https://doctorfriend.de/ 7. Viktor von Essen, Lukas Kemkes, Bo Tranberg: Chain of thought algorithm to analyse and attack legal arguments https://libratech.ai/ 8. Viacheslav Klimkov: Voice cloning https://lnkd.in/gugd4DTg 9. Vladimir Blagojevic: Orchestrating GPTs https://lnkd.in/g7jz-wcV 10. Mehdi Ouazza: AI as a curator https://lnkd.in/gbn_Hr8r 11. Roman Grebennikov: Lucene-based hybrid search engine which fine-tunes to your data https://lnkd.in/g_YztdXn 12. Paras Mehta, PhD: Code collaboration using audio and video https://asyncline.io/ 13. Nesrine Zarrouki: Beauty and code https://lnkd.in/gZWQgbvn 14. Christopher Helf: Automate your home with AI https://lnkd.in/gpnqWyRG Thanks so much to Constantin Dißelkamp without you, this would not have been possible! This event was brought to you by AI Tinkerers La Famiglia & Forto - see you the next time in Zurich and Paris!

🤝 We are thrilled to join Parloa's $66M Series B, led by Altimeter. Parloa pioneers AI-powered customer service automation, revolutionizing how businesses engage with customers. With $98M raised to date, Parloa is poised to drive innovation and expand into new markets, solidifying its position as a leader in contact center AI. CC: Judith Dada, Jeannette zu Fürstenberg, Carsten Thoma, Philipp Handel

After fantastic events in Berlin and Munich, we are very excited for AI Tinkerers to make their way to Zurich 🇨🇭. This is one of the most interesting applied AI/LLM event formats and communities where tinkerers showcase code, somewhat working prototypes, side projects, or fully-fletched AI features. Builders only! 👇 Make sure to RSVP, as seats are limited, and see you all next week! Sign up here. CC: AI Tinkerers, Anirudhh Ramesh, Angelina Parfenova, Severin Husmann, viet le