Jeannette zu Fürstenberg

Fireside Chat: Helsing x General Catalyst

The core message of the provided transcript is that Europe needs to treat AI-enabled autonomous defense systems as an urgent sovereignty and security priority, not as a niche investment theme. The session opens by contrasting how few people would have backed “an AI company for defense in Europe” in 2021 with how many would invest by 2026, using Helsing as the example: founded five years ago, recently raising 1,800,000,000 and reaching a valuation of 18,000,000,000. The moderator frames Doctor Jeannette zu Fürstenberg’s General Catalyst thesis around helping build technologies that make Europe more resilient and sovereign, while introducing Torsten Reil as co-founder and co-CEO of Helsing, a company that began software-first and now builds AI-enabled autonomous systems across air, land, and sea while keeping humans involved in critical decisions. Reil explains that Helsing entered defense about five and a half years ago “to some extent reluctantly,” because its founders believed Europe needed a new type of defense company focused on AI, software, and autonomous systems. He says their early concern was Europe’s ability to defend itself against Russia, informed by Crimea and by their expectation of a full-scale invasion of Ukraine. They included that risk in their seed pitch deck, got the direction right but the timing wrong, expecting 2025 rather than early 2022. After several years of war in Ukraine, Reil argues the threat toward NATO and Europe has intensified because Russian forces are now battle-hardened and increasingly understand autonomous systems and mass production, including large monthly production of GARON-4 and GARON-5 jet-powered cruise missiles. The conversation then turns to Europe’s current defense gaps. Reil highlights long-range drones and cruise missiles as a major threat because Europe has limited affordable defenses against large-volume attacks. He cites the Middle East example of Patriot PAC-3 missiles costing up to 2,000,000 or 4,000,000 dollars being used against much cheaper Shahed drones, sometimes requiring multiple interceptors per target. He also argues that the battlefield in Ukraine shows sharply reduced use of tanks and artillery, with drones and other autonomous systems making the battlefield increasingly dangerous for humans. On Germany’s 500,000,000,000 defense package, he says the large majority still goes to “exquisite expensive systems” such as F-35s, tanks, and artillery, while only a single-digit percentage goes into modern systems. Jeannette zu Fürstenberg links this procurement issue to strategic autonomy, noting that F-35 source code is controlled by the United States and arguing that this limits Europe’s practical agency if the U.S. decides the system will not fly. Reil responds that allied trade remains important, but Europe must maintain enough sovereign capabilities to defend itself. He describes Helsing’s work on an autonomous fighter jet near Munich, expected to fly for the first time next year, and says simulation already shows how powerful such systems can be against conventional alternatives. The later provided portion focuses on manufacturing: scaling from dozens of drones to thousands per month required Helsing to learn supply-chain resilience, European sourcing, robustness against missing parts, and surge manufacturing. Reil closes this segment with optimism that Europe, and especially Germany’s automotive and manufacturing talent base, can support large-scale autonomous defense production if governments create the right programs and contracts.