General Catalyst

“How can AI be a transformative force and bring resiliency in these core industries [healthcare, defense and intelligence, manufacturing, energy, and financial services]?” -Hemant Taneja At #Intersect24, GC’s Hemant Taneja and Jeannette zu Fürstenberg explored a variety of timely topics with Applied Intuition's Qasar Younis including: 1. Driving Transformation with Applied AI “The AI boom is about workforce transformation…everywhere we offshored because of globalization and labor arbitrage, we’re going to onshore that back with AI productivity.” -Hemant Taneja “We fundamentally have a lot of vertical strength that can be amplified with AI.” -Jeannette zu Fürstenberg 2. Building European Resilience “I feel passionate about really reactivating and reinvigorating [Europe’s] industrial base and making sure that we can find new ways to articulate that as a global ambition out of Europe.” -Jeannette zu Fürstenberg 3. Reimagining Venture Capital “[Venture capital] hasn’t innovated…it’s not an industry that can absorb a lot of capital, because frankly there’s not that many companies that have the size and potential as Applied Intuition. So your returns will degrade if you actually scale the capital that you’re managing. But if you think about how to bring innovation into society to *transform* it, and you reimagine capital stacks to do just that, then you can scale a company building and ecosystem building a lot more.” -Hemant Taneja #GlobalResilience #AppliedAI Watch the full conversation in the comments below ↓

The idea of stepping into virtual worlds has captivated imaginations for nearly a century, from Lawrence Manning’s 1933 dream programming to today’s cutting-edge extended reality (XR) experiences. Fast forward to 2024, the XR ecosystem has grown into a multi-billion-dollar industry, with Meta's Quest 3 and Apple's Vision Pro leading the charge. At General Catalyst, we have conviction that the XR ecosystem will continue to thrive, fueled by the demands of a digital-native generation, applied AI innovation, and the constant evolution of hardware and experiences. We’re always looking to connect with builders in this space. "We believe that the principal use case of XR, gaming, will continue to see strong adoption among consumers and will evolve as the users of this tech evolve too. As XR begins to break out of this niche, we also believe in emerging new use cases based on the lifestyle and needs of these users.”  -GC’s Niko and Jonny The future is immersive, and it’s only just beginning. Enter these new digital portals ↓

We see our Creation Strategy as a catalyst for industry transformation, like “harmonizing” the global contact center market with applied AI. We answered this call with Crescendo – an augmented AI-customer experience platform. We’re thrilled to deepen our partnership with Matt Price, Andy Lee, Anand Chandrasekaran, Slava Zhakov, and the entire team and congratulate Crescendo on its milestone funding announcement today. Hemant Taneja, GC’s CEO & Managing Director will be joining the Board of Directors. “Crescendo represents a whole new paradigm in customer experience platforms with its ability to deliver significantly better service through AI while ensuring quality control and learning from every transaction with human experts. We believe in the unique Venture Buyout model (VBO) pioneered by General Catalyst, which Crescendo embodies, enabling them to accelerate their model significantly faster and bring more applied AI to enterprises sooner." -Hemant Taneja #AppliedAI More from the Crescendo team Bloomberg in the comments ↓

“Dementia care on demand.” That’s how Rippl improves the quality of life for those with dementia and their caregivers. With a tech-enabled platform, value-based care approach, and expanding geographical footprint, Rippl helps those with dementia access the compassionate care they deserve. We led Rippl’s seed in 2022, and today we’re proud to strengthen our partnership with Kris and the entire Rippl team by investing in its $23M Series A raise. “With this investment, we will continue to deliver on our mission to provide the highest quality support for those navigating the challenges of dementia. People affected by this disease have been undervalued and underserved for far too long. We founded Rippl to dramatically expand access to the highest quality, speciality care for patients, caregivers and families struggling with this disease. And, keep them at home and out of the ED and hospital, a place they end up far too often.” -Kris Engskov, Rippl’s CEO More from Fierce Healthcare in the comments ↓

“Turning Vision into Action: GenAI for Health”— a must-attend symposium hosted at the Amazon Web Services (AWS) GenAI Loft on October 17th in London. We will be gathering an incredible group of industry leaders, technical experts, clinicians, and investors to discuss practical and high-impact Generative AI use cases in healthcare and life science. 💥 Inspiring Keynotes: Hear from senior leaders in healthcare and bio tackling the biggest innovation challenges with GenAI. 💥 Startup Showcases: Discover cutting-edge GenAI solutions from some of the hottest startups in this space. 💥 Expert Panels: Learn actionable insights on how to deploy and scale GenAI in clinical and R&D settings. 📅 October 17th, 13:30 - 19:00 🗺️ AWS GenAI Loft - White Rabbit Studios, Shoreditch, London 🔗 Space is limited! Register with link in comments

“You can invest in the very best technological innovation that's out there... but guess what? If you don't have public policies that help shape that in the right way, it doesn't become a true reality." -Teresa Carlson, President of General Catalyst Institute (GCI) GC’s CEO and Managing Director, Hemant Taneja and GCI’s President, Teresa Carlson sat down with Tammy Haddad on the Washington AI Network Podcast discussing the launch of the GC Institute and the importance of building partnerships between startups and policymakers. Below are a few of their insights. 1. Build Private and Public Sector Bridges   “I believe in partnerships. GC believes in partnerships…We want to listen, we want to learn, we want to advocate, we want to educate…And for us, it's not about what's going wrong and what can't be done, it's about what can be done.” -Teresa Carlson “Our goal is to make them more effective, because the technology industry has not been that sophisticated about engaging with policy. The conventional wisdom is if policymakers are paying attention to it, it's a good thing, meaning you made it and then you'll deal with the problems rather than being proactive and intentional about how to work together. So I think we want to bring that cultural mindset to the industry.” -Hemant Taneja   2. Navigate Peak Ambiguity with Global Resilience “This is peak ambiguity. If you think about the geopolitics, how the global trade is changing, and the re-globalization going on, and then you've got this massive tectonic shift in terms of technology and AI. None of us really know what the world's going to look like in the future. In that setting, you go back to your core values and navigate that ambiguity with a true north. And for us it is, we often call it inclusive capitalism. How do you think about sustainability? How do you think about bringing everybody along? And hence the phrase global resilience.” -Hemant Taneja 3. Understand AI’s Workforce Implications “So I think we're going from unipolarity to a multipolar world as you think about what's happening today, and a lot of market competitiveness ultimately is going to come down to the race for AI. And the reason is whatever the winning AI technologies are going to have significant impact on our culture, significant impact on what the market leading businesses are. Because to my earlier point, the workforce transformation that it enables and therefore the ability to innovate these future businesses is a stunning capability.” -Hemant Taneja #GlobalResilience #AppliedAI Listen to the full episode linked in comments ↓

How do you world-build within a digital world? If Fortnite laid the foundation, Future Trash, Inc is taking it to the next level.  At 20M unique players and 1B minutes of playtime, the FOAD universe has struck a chord within the UGC ecosystem of the Unreal Editor for Fortnite (UEFN). “We were inspired by what we believe is Kevin and the team’s unique vision within the UEFN ecosystem. The way they’re building community and raising awareness not only within the Fortnite ecosystem, but around their own characters and IP has been great to see. We view this as an opportunity to really stand out in the early days of the platform.” -GC’s Jonny Z. We’re proud to co-lead Future Trash’s $5M funding round and welcome Kevin, Nate, Scott, Sebastian, and the entire team to the GC family. More from VentureBeat in the comments ↓

Last week, I joined Italian Tech Week in Torino and the Resilience Conference in London as a speaker to discuss some of the most pressing issues of our time: European Resilience and the importance of technology and innovation. In an increasingly complex and interconnected world, Global Resilience has become more than a buzzword—it’s a critical necessity. Building resilience means creating systems that can adapt, recover, and thrive in the face of disruption—whether that’s a war on European soil, a global pandemic, or the growing challenges of climate change. AI plays a transformative role in this effort and can lead to a new European RenAIssance. From defense startups like Helsing, which enhance national security through AI-powered systems, to dual-use technologies that strengthen critical infrastructure, we are witnessing the power of innovation to not just protect, but to future-proof societies. Mistral AI’s applied AI models are a perfect example of how we can leverage technology to enhance decision-making across industries, bringing scalability, adaptability, and real-world impact. However, resilience is not just about technology—it’s about people. Europe’s deep talent pool and unique industrial base offer us an opportunity to build a more secure and independent future. By fostering collaboration between startups, governments, and established industries, we can create sustainable, scalable solutions that build strength, sovereignty, and vibrancy in our ecosystems. In a world where disruption is the new normal, resilience isn’t optional—it’s imperative.

Speaking with President Macron in New York yesterday during UN General Assembly week, we emphasized France's outsized role in the innovation economy. General Catalyst has invested over $500Mn in leading startups in the country like Mistral AI and Shift Technology, and I have seen myself the talent density especially in AI through organizations like STATION F. The French have immense opportunity to lead in AI by promoting a competitive landscape—engaging incumbents while promoting home grown startups and allowing startups to thrive without a burdensome regulatory scheme. Their leadership in advanced energy through nuclear power will not only support the AI revolution domestically, but can be exported to allied countries around the world which we desperately need.  As my partner and Head of GC Europe Jeannette zu Fürstenberg says, we believe Europe should have the ambition to create 3 of the 10 largest global tech companies. Between France and other leading European countries, with a set of balanced policies that allow European tech companies to grow, this is possible. At GC we are partnering with policymakers to build towards that ambition. #UNGA Cc: Teresa Carlson Maryam Mujica Chris Bischoff Alexandre Momeni

"The role of a leader is to define reality and give hope." -Kenneth I. Chenault GC’s Ken Chenault and Kenneth C. Frazier spoke with Steven Bertoni at Forbes’ #Under30Summit about leading through crisis during their storied tenures as CEOs of American Express and Merck, respectively. Watch the highlights ↓