Jolt Capital

He is Rapidus' GM and president in the US. He is a dyed-in-the-wool #Joltian. He is one of the best connoisseurs of the semicon world. He now sits on the board of Jolt Capital's portco and leader in laser surface processing, German company 4JET. (link to full press release in comment) #laser #processing #materials #semiconductor #chips #glass #wafer #manufacturing #industry #capitalequipment #deeptech #scaleup #privateequity #board The 4JET Group Antoine Trannoy

He talked about 1/ Apple Intelligence, 2/ Anthropic's new funding round, 3/ STMicroelectronics' rough times, 4/ Ynsect going belly up, 5/ BYD cars in Europe. 1/ will the classic Apple second mover advantage work this time again with artificial intelligence? 2/ LLMs are still stochastic parrots but they are adding Kahneman's system 1 / system 2 "thinking" modes. 3/ don't put STMicroelectonics in the same basket as Intel, because edge AI and automotive electronics should rejuvenate the European manufacturer. 4/ remember (French TV series) Les Shadoks: before building a giant factory, do make sure the smaller version works perfectly. 5/ what if BYD's move to swamp European market was the best way ... to wipe out the competition at home? Jean Schmitt was sharing the set last night on BFMTV with Christophe Aulnette and terrific tech anchormen François Sorel and Frédéric Simottel Replay in French is here: https://lnkd.in/dD_d_bma 🙏🏼 Léa Benaim #deeptech #factory #llm #insect #newproteins #proteins #chip #chipwar #edgeai #apple #funding #round #mealworm #chinese #ev #electric #byd #tvshow #privateequity #growthcapital

Jean, Eoghan and Clement spent the whole week in Montreal and Toronto. 🇨🇦 Evangelizing growth deeptech. Engaging (or pursuing) the conversation with potential LPs. Meeting high-level innovation stakeholders. 🍁 If you want to hear Jean unpacking the deep reasons why we picked Canada, tune in to the latest episode of The Hard Part with Evan McCann podcast (link in comment). 🙏 Evan McCann #deeptech #canada #growthequity #scaleup #ip #privateequity #sovereignty #montreal #toronto #expansion #investment #fund #capital #joltian #podcast #lp #gp

Claude Chappe could have patented his semaphore telegraph (the patent law had been passed 3 years earlier in France) but he didn't (contributing to the common good was still very much entrenched in the revolutionary mentality). #JoltNinja doesn't roll the clock of telecommunications innovation back 230 years, but only 10. Enough to see the dynamics of funding rounds, the emergence of AI-related companies, the way Europe compares with the US, the linear growth of granted patents, and the trend in exit values. Available on our website: https://lnkd.in/d-hxFNxc #atlas #mapping #dataviz #ai #patent #ip #exit #investment #funding #round #privateequity #deeptech #telecom #telecommunications #telco #communication #growthequity #scaleup

We keep hammering home that to build AI muscle we don't just need billions for more data centers, but also well trained professionals who know a thing or two about algebra (and other branches of maths). Take matrix multiplication for example, one of the most time-consuming tasks in AI. When Google DeepMind's AlphaTensor used reinforcement learning in 2022 to outperform Strassen's algorithm, no progress had been made on this front in 50 years. Reducing the dimension of matrixes is another way to shrink processing time (part of what Deepseek did). When we hear about agents and matrixes these days, we should think about AI, not the Wachowskis. #ai #ml #machinelearning #llm #matrix #maths #deeplearning #teaching #mathematics #deeptech #privateequity #education #policy #infra #algebra #algorithm #alphatensor #deepseek

AI has become a battle of sovereignties. 🇺🇸 vs 🇪🇺 vs 🇨🇳 Our billions against their billions. Our data centers, your talents, my startups. But there's one key sovereignty element nobody seems to pay heed, despite the fact it's probably the most legally enforceable: intellectual property. Maybe because conventional wisdom says AI is hardly patentable (bogus!). When we ask #JoltNinja to compare AI patents in the US, Europe and Asia, the trend is clear: in 10 years the lion's share taken by the US has decreased from 80% to 45% (mostly due to Asia's upsurge), but when looking at the 5% best quality patents (according to our Jolt Patent Score), the US dwarves everybody with over 90% of IP's creme de la creme. No European AI sovereign policy should leave IP strategies out of the picture. Last April, #JoltNinja had generated a first global report about AI in the world, and with the current frenzy about the topic we wanted to update it. Not just about patents of course, but we also collected very interesting data about the funding landscape (who funds what, what are exit sizes, how many scaleups per AI subfamily, ...). And finally this: more than 50% of all AI companies scanned by JoltNinja belong to what we call the "hidden universe" (companies flying under the radar, that have never raised, or disclosed, funds from a professional VC or PE investor). #AIwarhasjustbegun #deeptech #AI #ML #artificialintelligence #deeplearning #LLM #privateequity #growthcapital #patent #IP #brevet

The western colossus is doping its AI infra with close to 1 trillion dollars. The eastern goliath sends a curve ball named DeepSeek. Is Europe forced to play catch up? Where and how should we invest our euros? Is it only about huge piles of money? How is a deeptech PE firm like Jolt Capital approaching the whole thing? Jean Schmitt sat with Pierrick Fay to answer those questions and more. The latest episode of "La Story by Les Echos" podcast is here (and in French): https://lnkd.in/d8eX5e5d #podcast #deeptech #AI #funding #stargate #deepseek #sovereignty #infra #infrastructure #llm #gpu #privateequity #fund #growthcapital #rag #ml #media #lastory

👺 LLMs are like Pinocchio They unwillingly lie. They have no sense of time or causality. They don't make sense of the world around them. They are a far cry from acting human yet.   💰 Money is just one side of the coin 500 billion thrown at AI will help get the raw materials, sure. But brute force only gets you so far. And don't forget the crowding out effect.   🧮 Maths, baby, maths To advance AI technologies, maths is more essential than ever (algebra, graph theory, topology, etc.). Give us 5% of the 500 billion, and we'll rebuild maths education. And the future of AI.   🇪🇺 Don't discount Europe yet Nobody owns AI. We are still a powerhouse of research and academia. We also sit on huge heaps of quality data to train future models. And regulation is not just a hindrance.    ❓ +1 = (-1) + (x3) No, it's not one of those LLM math bloopers everyone is making fun of. It's Jolt Capital's equation. When we invest 1€ in a company, it should equate to 1kg of CO2 saved + a financial return of 3X on exit. That's our ikigai.   Thanks a lot to Radio Classique and to Stephane Pedrazzi for hosting Jean Schmitt yesterday morning on his "La France de demain" show. For those who speak French, you can get a replay of the 6mn conversation here: https://lnkd.in/eqU5viGz #radio #interview #replay #AI #LLM #stargate #deepseek #maths #fund #investment #europe #mathematics #equation #privateequity #growthcapital #talkshow #ESG #DPI #IRR

🇯🇵 Why we are adamant about the potential of Japan for deeptech. 🗼 Our plans to grow the number of Joltians in Tokyo, to support Akira Okada. ✈️ Jean Schmitt's next visit to Japan (March 12th - 15th). 💴 How we approach Japanese LPs for Jolt Capital V and beyond. 🇫🇷 The often overlooked similarities between French and Japanese innovation ecosystems. Here are some of the topics discussed today at STATION F by #Joltian Maxime Mallet during the Sushi Tech Tokyo convention. Delighted to have met again our partners of Tokyo Metropolitan Government! Special thanks to Keiichi YOSHIMURA and to Antoine Silva (Viva Technology). #japan #sushitech #deeptech #startup #innovation #funding #privateequity #funding #scaleup #growthcapital SusHi Tech Tokyo 2025 on May 8-10

35 years in the pharma industry, including almost 20 with Bayer Pharma. Jean-Philippe (JP) Milon joins our A-team of operating partners, bringing to the table his outstanding experience in biz dev, licensing and M&A in healthcare. He's been involved with surgical robotics and biotechs, with oncology and cardiology. It's no secret that at Jolt Capital we are accelerating in the fields of e-health and AI-powered medical devices. His appointment couldn't have been more timely. The whole #Joltian crew welcomes you onboard, cher Jean-Philippe. Read more about his background and track record here: https://lnkd.in/dAvfmgFm 🧬 🩺 🩻 💊 🧠 #operatingpartner #partner #jolt #pharma #health #lifescience #biotech #oncology #medicaldevice #medtech #healthcare #appointment #deeptech #growthcapital #privateequity #ehealth #AI