From private equity to building Europe's ARPA
Loesekrug-Pietri moved through private equity, entrepreneurship, and government, including a stint as special advisor to the French Minister of Defense, before co-founding JEDI in 2018. About 20 people set up the organization, split roughly into three groups: industrialists, heads of large research bodies such as Germany's DLR and France's CNRS, and deep tech founders. Among them, former astronaut and French research minister Claudie Haigneré suggested the name « JEDI », betting that Europe could lead the rebellion against our dependencies, and lead the future rather than being a fast follower. Loesekrug-Pietri said the founders built JEDI outside EU institutions to avoid getting bugged down in bureaucracy at the European Commission or in member state ministries.
A DARPA model built around calculated big bets, program managers and clear priorities
JEDI borrows its structure from the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, which Loesekrug-Pietri credits with pioneering technologies in the wake of the « Sputnik shock », like GPS, stealth technology, and autonomous vehicles. For JEDI, everything is dual use and weaponizable – and the fact that DARPA came initiailly from the DoD reflect the defense ministries unique long term budget planning cycles and obsession to prevent strategic surprise– views that are very close to JEDI’s concern. Each JEDI moonshot sets one quantitative goal and assigns a single program manager, rather than a scientific committee, to make calculated bets across disciplines. Loesekrug-Pietri contrasted this with France's 40-billion-euro France 2030 program, which funded 7,500 projects and, in his view, has of course supported many interesting project but not yet produced a single world-leading company. JEDI's own network spans more than 8,000 technology and science leaders, the largest deeptech network in Europe, across 30 countries and 43 hubs.
Support from philanthropies, over 150 CEOs, and three EU states
JEDI's funding comes from three sources, Loesekrug-Pietri said. It started with two philanthropic donors, a family foundation in Germany and an insurance-linked philanthropy in France, both concerned about Europe's industrial future. More than 150 CEOs of large industrial groups and startups now support JEDI, including companies such as Siemens Energy, Schaeffler, and Fives, who are given access to JEDI’s largest deeptech network in Europe, and technological foresight capacities across 40 topics, and the opportunity to shape the technology moonshot program JEDI launched. JEDI also has direct backing from three EU member states, which see flagship technology programs, such as on robotics in an Eastern European country and one on quantum sensing in a Scandinavian country, as tools for their own competitiveness, an acceleration for their ecosystem and a unique lighthouse for their attractiveness.
11 active Moonshot programmes (rare earths, lasers, antibiotics…)
One active JEDI program targets refining critical minerals with 10 to 100 times less environmental impact, aiming to cut Europe's reliance on China, which Loesekrug-Pietri said now refines 90 percent of the permanent magnets — widely used in electric motors, missile guidance systems and offshore wind turbines. A second program is developing all-weather laser communication, since low earth orbit satellites currently have only a nine-minute window to downlink data and clouds block laser links; the same technology could force down drones for about 2 euros per shot instead of firing million-dollar missiles. A third program targets antimicrobial resistance, which could kill up to 10 million people by 2050 since there has been no major discovery in the past 20 years.
How the money flows, and what's ahead - The JEDI methodology
Programs typically start with 50 to 150 teams, that JEDI will invite throughout Europe from industry, startups and academia, and then funds three to seven of them in parallel for nine to 18 months, paying half the grant upfront and the rest only if a team reaches the goal and a working prototype, Loesekrug-Pietri said. Teams keep their IP, and JEDI steps back once a prototype is ready to attract venture or seed funding. JEDI's formal organization is under 3 years old, Loesekrug-Pietri said, with one program completed, a Coronavirus treatment effort that produced 26 potential molecules, two more programs in evaluation, and nine additional active programs.
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