US VC firm General Catalyst (GC) ended 2024 with 16 (publicly announced) investments in Europe, including 10 as lead investor, according to Sifted data.
And GC’s new $8bn fund, announced in October 2024, has already translated into two sizeable European deals this year — a $200m Series E round for Spanish travel management unicorn TravelPerk and a $260m Series B for Daniel Ek’s Neko Health, crowning the latter as Europe’s third unicorn for 2025.
When GC leads, it leads big — in 2024, median deal size for a General Catalyst-led round stood at €21m, compared to €11.6m when participating. Two recent chunky GC-led rounds were Mistral’s €468m Series B in June 2024 and defence tech Helsing’s €450m Series C in July.
But most of the GC action happens in the earlier stages, particularly at seed and Series A, where the median deal size drops to €8.6m. General Catalyst invests most frequently in the UK and Germany and its money has helped create 15 unicorns in Europe.
General Catalyst focuses heavily on deeptech, B2B SaaS and AI. It also backs fintech, healthtech and climate startups.
Here are 10 of General Catalyst’s most noteworthy investments in Europe.
Factorial
The Barcelona company automates and centralises HR administrative tasks. In October 2022, Factorial achieved unicorn status with a $120m Series C and has recently raised a $80m debt round from General Catalyst.
Helsing
Munich-based Helsing, founded in 2021, is an AI defence startup focused on battlefield technology. Initially focused on software, it recently unveiled its HX-2 autonomous strike drones last December. Backed by €450m in funding at a €4.95bn valuation in summer 2024, Helsing now competes with European players like Stark, Quantum Systems and Tekever.
Mistral AI
The Paris-based brainchild of ex-Meta and DeepMind engineers is Europe’s answer to US LLM giants like OpenAI. The startup has raised €1.09bn across three funding rounds — the most recent one being a €600m raise in June — earning a €5.8bn valuation as Europe’s most valuable AI startup. Mistral aims to lead in LLM development while integrating these models into industries across Europe and beyond.
Doccla
UK-based company that develops “virtual ward” technology that enables healthcare providers to monitor patients at home using devices to track health vitals like blood pressure and heart rate. Backed by a £35m Series B round in 2024 led by Lakestar — with participation from GC — Doccla also cracked Sifted’s “Rising 100” list for B2B SaaS stars in 2024.
Neko Health
This Swedish healthtech startup, founded in 2023 by Spotify’s Daniel Ek and Hjalmar Nilsonne, offers full-body health scans aimed at preventative care. With $260m raised in a Series B led by Lightspeed Venture Partners in January 2025, Neko is now valued at $1.7bn.
Beauty Pie
London-based makeup and skincare products brand founded in 2016 by Marcia Kilgore, who founded a string of global beauty companies like Bliss Spa, FitFlop and Soap & Glory. The company raised a $100m Series B in 2021, in a deal that included GC money.
Black Forest Labs
General Catalyst backed German GenAI startup Black Forest Labs in a $31m seed round in 2024 — and is reported to have followed on in a subsequent, as yet unannounced and unconfirmed round which valued the company at over $1bn. Black Forest Labs’ team is still small — at under 30 people — and primarily consists of engineers and researchers working on its text-to-image generation tool.
Monzo
Digital bank offering personal and business accounts. The neobank reported full-year profitability for the first time in 2024 and is currently preparing for an IPO, though there are debates internally over where best to list.
Multiverse
This London-based company, founded in 2016, offers apprenticeships as an alternative to university and corporate training. After expanding to the US in 2021, Multiverse became the UK’s first edtech unicorn in 2022, raising $220m in a Series D, led by StepStone Group, Lightspeed Venture Partners and GC, reaching a $1.7bn valuation.
TravelPerk
Provides a business travel management platform for booking and expense tracking. The startup raised $200m in a Series E in January 2025 led by Atomico, reaching a $2.7bn valuation. The round follows its $104m Series D extension in 2024 and includes the acquisition of Swiss expense startup Yokoy.
Read the orginal article: https://sifted.eu/articles/general-catalyst-portfolio-europe/
