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Jeannette zu Fürstenberg

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Jeannette zu Fürstenberg
Alma mater ESCP Business School,
Free University of Berlin
Occupations Businesswoman, Entrepreneur, Venture capitalist, Author
Organization(s) General Catalyst, La Famiglia
Website https://haus-fuerstenberg.com/

Jeannette Catherine Fürstin zu Fürstenberg[1] (born September 10, 1982 in Duisburg as Jeannette Catherine Griesel[2]) is a German businesswoman and entrepreneur.[3] She is known for her work in European technology, artificial intelligence, and industrial innovation. She is the president and managing director of General Catalyst.[4]

Early life and education

Fürstenberg was born the daughter of Ghislaine Elsbeth Cecile Rademacher-Dubbick and her husband Peer Griesel. Her maternal family owns the measuring technology company Krohne Messtechnik (a German SME, or Mittelstand, which is recognized as a "hidden champion").[5]

Fürstenberg studied communications and economics at LMU Munich. She studied economics at the ESCP Business School in Paris, graduating with a master's degree from the ESCP Business School.[6] She completed a doctorate in business administration with a focus in entrepreneurship and art during the Renaissance at the Free University of Berlin.[7][6]

Career

Following her studies, she has worked for Ernst & Young, Synthesis, and AXA.

In 2011, Fürstenberg and her husband founded Fürstenberg Zeitgenössisch. The project consists of a fellowship programme, annual temporary exhibitions and the establishment of a small collection. The focus is on young, emerging artists who have distinguished themselves in recent years through new concepts and languages of form and have in this context become the focus of international discourse.[8][9]

La Famiglia

Fürstenberg has been active in the start-up ecosystem as co-founder, investor and advisor since 2013.[10]

In 2016, she co-founded La Famiglia VC, a European-based venture capital fund investing in early stage tech companies across Europe and the US.[11][12] Her co-founder was Robert Lacher. Later she ran the firm together with Judith Dada.[13]

Coming from an industrial background herself, she designed La Famiglia as a bridge between the world of startup founders and established Mittelstand companies.[14] Her fund gathered the support of industrial families, including Viessmann, Miele, Siemens, Conrad and Fürstenberg from Germany, as well as Solvay from Belgium and Swarovski from Austria.[15] Later, seeing the potential of this approach, the firms of German-American venture capitalist Peter Thiel recommended La Famiglia to act as a bridge between U.S. startups and European industrial companies, so both could gain access to the other side's networks and technology.[16]

Zu Fürstenberg sits on the board of German defense unicorn Helsing and French LLM unicorn Mistral AI.[17]

In October 2025, Torsten Reil, cofounder and co-CEO of Helsing, recalled that, only five years before, it was impossible to get funding for defense startups from European venture capitalists. Zu Fürstenberg wanted to invest in Helsing in 2021 but European regulations barred her fund (La Famiglia) from investing in military-affiliated companies, so she invested with her own money. Finanz trend remarks that European startups need American venture capitalists not only because of money, but also experience, while there is a trend of European investors like zu Fürstenberg returning home, because American regulations restrict foreign investors in investing in military and classified technologies.[18] La Famiglia (with zu Fürstenberg also investing personally) managed to invest in Helsing in 2023 (Series B).[19]

La Famiglia merged with American VC firm General Catalyst in 2023, after which zu Fürstenberg became a managing director at the latter, overseeing its European business.[20][21]

General Catalyst

Zu Fürstenberg and her firm General Catalyst lead the EU's AI Champions initiative. The initiative brings together 120 European companies across Europe, aiming to make Europe a global AI leader through coordinating efforts across industry, technology, capital and policy. This group of companies, led by General Catalyst, consists of startups such as Black Forest Labs, Mistral AI, Mirakl and Personio, and incumbents such as Deutsche Bank, L'Oréal, Mercedes-Benz, Porsche, SAP, Volkswagen Group, Siemens and Spotify.[22][23]

On the initiative's official website, the mission statement written by her reads:

The initiative aims to frame a positive vision for Europe by mobilizing talent and capital, accelerating AI adoption in established industries, and increasing European companies’ competitiveness. Led by General Catalyst, our mission is to foster a resilient partnership between incumbents and technology providers to unlock Europe’s full potential in AI. Europe can seize a generational opportunity by leading in applied AI, integrating it into Europe’s industrial base to boost productivity, resilience, and economic sovereignty, especially in key sectors like manufacturing, energy, and defense.

To support this vision, General Catalyst's report ‘An Ambitious Agenda for European AI’ provides a strategic blueprint for Europe's path to AI leadership.[24]

In 2025, in an interview with Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Fürstenberg said that in the area of artificial intelligence, Germany and Europe should not just think about making progress, but actually winning the global race. She called for Germans and Europeans not to be intimidated by American and Chinese megaprojects such as the $500 billion Stargate project. She explained that in the first wave of internet technology development, European had not been able to catch up due to the fragmented markets in Europe, but AI would open new possibilities.[25]

Awards

  • 2025: Number 8 on the Forbes list ″The Midas List Europe: Top Tech Investors″[26]

Publications

Personal life

On 16 September 2010 she married Christian Prinz zu Fürstenberg (b. 1977) in a civil ceremony in Donaueschingen.[27]

She began playing polo in 2010, and co-founded the Fürstenberg Polo Club with her husband later that year.[28][29] She speaks five languages.[30] She is influenced in both artistic taste and business thinking by her grandfather, the entrepreneur and painter Kristian Rademacher-Dubbick, who gave up his artistic career to take over the family business after the Second World War.[31][32]

In 2026, zu Fürstenberg said that, she always feels like she never belongs to one circle, which happened when she moved from her family's industrial business world to the academia, when she married into a 800-year-old royal family, and when she works in the Silicon Valley.[30]

References

  1. Back to citation https://www.munzinger.de/register/portrait/biographien/Jeannette+Catherine+F%C3%BCrstin+zu+F%C3%BCrstenberg/00/33772
  2. Back to citation https://www.munzinger.de/register/portrait/biographien/Jeannette+Catherine+F%C3%BCrstin+zu+F%C3%BCrstenberg/00/33772
  3. Back to citation Fine, Jerramy (14 September 2011). Bright Young Royals: Your Guide to the Next Generation of Blue Bloods. Penguin. ISBN 978-0425246870.
  4. Back to citation "Jeannette zu Fürstenberg General Catalyst". www.generalcatalyst.com. Retrieved 5 June 2026.
  5. Back to citation "Review 2017". Süddeutsche Zeitung Wirtschaftsgipfel. Retrieved 5 January 2019; "KROHNE Messtechnik GmbH in Duisburg - Hidden Champions". www.hidden-champions.de (in German). Retrieved 22 July 2026; "Jeannette Catherine Fürstin zu Fürstenberg - Munzinger Biographie". www.munzinger.de. Retrieved 23 July 2026.
  6. Back to citation occurrence 6.0 Back to citation occurrence 6.1 "Erbprinz heiratet Bürgerliche". Schwäbische. 2 September 2010. Retrieved 5 January 2019.
  7. Back to citation Faltin, Günter (30 October 2018). Brains versus Capital - Entrepreneurship for Everyone – Lean, Smart, Simple. World Scientific Publishing Co. p. 197. ISBN 9789813234611.
  8. Back to citation "FÜRSTENBERG CONTEMPORARY". FÜRSTENBERG CONTEMPORARY. Retrieved 5 January 2019.
  9. Back to citation "LES COLLECTIONS DES PRINCES DE FÜRSTENBERG". Donaueschingen Am Ursprung. Archived from the original on 6 January 2019. Retrieved 5 January 2019.
  10. Back to citation "JEANNETTE ZU FÜRSTENBERG". Hinterland of Things. Archived from the original on 6 January 2019. Retrieved 5 January 2019; "200+ Great speakers and supporters of EYES". Eyes International. Archived from the original on 6 January 2019. Retrieved 5 January 2019; "Interviewees". The State of European Tech 2017. Retrieved 5 January 2019.
  11. Back to citation "Princely Family". The House of Fürstenberg. Archived from the original on 1 January 2019. Retrieved 5 January 2019.
  12. Back to citation Johansson, Frans (1 June 2017). "Episode 7: Princess Jeannette zu Fürstenberg on Art, Innovation, and Entrepreneurship". Frans Johansson. Retrieved 5 January 2019.
  13. Back to citation Lewin, Amy (11 August 2020). "La Famiglia raises €50m fund with all-star LP backing". Sifted.
  14. Back to citation Brors, Peter (16 December 2016). "Mittelständler legen Gründerfonds auf: Wagemutige Familien". www.handelsblatt.com (in German).
  15. Back to citation "La Famiglia: Bekannte Szene-Köpfe verbünden sich mit dem deutschen Mittelstand". Business Insider (in German). 16 December 2016.
  16. Back to citation magazin, Jonas Rest, Philipp Alvares de Souza Soares, manager (4 October 2017). "(m+) NEW KIDS ON THE BLOCK". www.manager-magazin.de (in German).
  17. Back to citation Lewin, Amy (18 November 2024). "General Catalyst partner and Helsing, Mistral board member Jeannette zu Fürstenberg on how to build more businesses like them". Sifted.
  18. Back to citation Müller, Carsten (26 October 2025). "Defense-Tech: Europas unerwartete Investmentchance". Finanztrends (in German).
  19. Back to citation "Helsing: AI to Protect Our Democracies". Helsing: AI to Protect Our Democracies. Retrieved 22 July 2026.
  20. Back to citation Hammond, George (16 October 2023). "General Catalyst in German VC tie-up as part of European tech push". Financial Times.
  21. Back to citation Warnock, Eleanor (16 October 2023). "German fund La Famiglia merges with General Catalyst". Sifted.
  22. Back to citation "Jeannette zu Fürstenberg". Resilience Conf.
  23. Back to citation Partington, Miriam (3 July 2025). "Mistral, Black Forest Labs join calls to pause AI Act". Sifted. “The signatories from the EU AI Champions Initiative — a coalition of 120 European companies brought together by Jeannette zu Fürstenberg at General Catalyst for the advancement of European AI — include the founders of Black Forest Labs, Mistral, Mirakl and Personio, as well as larger companies like Mercedes Benz, Siemens Energy and Lufthansa.”
  24. Back to citation "EU AI Champions Initiative". EU AI Champions Initiative. Archived from the original on 4 October 2025. Retrieved 14 October 2025.
  25. Back to citation Budras, Corinna (23 February 2025). "KI in Europa: „Fortschritt reicht nicht. Wir müssen gewinnen!"". FAZ.NET (in German).
  26. Back to citation "Jeannette zu Fürstenberg". Forbes. Retrieved 2026-01-20.
  27. Back to citation https://www.schwarzwaelder-bote.de/inhalt.donaueschingen-heirat-in-rom.4a7aefa6-991f-4756-b65a-834fd1a53313.html; "Princely Family". The House of Fürstenberg. Archived from the original on 1 January 2019. Retrieved 5 January 2019; "BABYFREUDEN IM HAUS FÜRSTENBERG: Prinz Christian und Jeannette zum dritten Mal Eltern geworden". Gala. 23 November 2018. Retrieved 6 January 2019; Heckl, Stephanie (23 November 2018). "Christian & Jeannette zu Fürstenberg Das Baby ist da!". Bunte. Retrieved 6 January 2019.
  28. Back to citation "Polo at spring of the Danube – new members are welcome" (PDF), Polo & Luxury Country Life Magazine, pp. 32, 33, 2015, retrieved 5 January 2019
  29. Back to citation Hügli-Herrmann, Birgit (5 August 2017). "FÜRSTENBERG POLO CUP – TEAM OCTOGONE WINS WITH A GOLDEN GOAL". Polo & Luxury. Archived from the original on 6 January 2019. Retrieved 5 January 2019.
  30. Back to citation occurrence 30.0 Back to citation occurrence 30.1 "The Princess President of a Major VC Firm Wants a European AI Renaissance". Bloomberg.com. 6 February 2026.
  31. Back to citation WELT, Christiane Hoffmans (14 January 2012). "Ein Schloss wird zum Künstlerheim - WELT". DIE WELT (in German).
  32. Back to citation Noshe, Text Boris PofallaFoto. "Die moderne Renaissance-Frau — die dame Est. 1912 in Berlin". www.diedame.de. Retrieved 23 July 2026.
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