NEW YORK & MUNICH--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Apr 29, 2026--
Helena Capital today announced that Katy Nelson has joined Sarah Antor and Robin Wood Sailer as General Partner. Nelson’s addition marks a significant milestone for the firm, bringing an unparalleled depth of experience and strategic insight that will be instrumental in shaping its future and rounding out the management team.
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Nelson joins Helena Capital after a distinguished five-year tenure at Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), where she served as a Partner. During her time there, she was the architect and leader of the firm’s largest cross-sector go-to-market (GTM) organization. This initiative was pivotal in helping a16z scale its assets under management from approximately $13 billion to over $90 billion. Nelson was a vital part of establishing GTM as a core operating function within a16z, providing essential support to hundreds of portfolio companies – from nascent, pre-product startups through to those preparing for IPO. Her work in this capacity provided her with a 360-degree view of enterprise growth dynamics.
Within the a16z ecosystem, Nelson worked extensively with the firm’s cybersecurity portfolio, where she built a robust global CISO (Chief Information Security Officer) network and community. This direct engagement has given her profound, first-hand insight into how security and identity leaders evaluate, adopt, and deploy cutting-edge enterprise technology.
Nelson brings a perspective that is highly relevant to Helena Capital and its portfolio companies. At Andreessen Horowitz, she played a key role in the early development and scaling of the firm’s groundbreaking efforts to invest in companies critical to the U.S. national interest. She helped shape how the firm engaged with companies operating in sectors central to national resilience and industrial capacity, and was instrumental in supporting the deployment of capital into this vision. Her work there focused on translating technical innovation into real-world adoption through enterprise go-to-market, partnerships, and institutional engagement.
“Katy Nelson is one of the most respected operators in venture capital, and her arrival represents a significant inflection point for Helena Capital,” said Sarah Antor, Managing Partner of Helena Capital. “Robin and I built this firm around a clear conviction: the next generation of category-defining companies in advanced manufacturing, supply chain, and resilient infrastructure will be won not just on capital, but on hands-on operational partnership. Katy embodies that thesis. She has the rare combination of investor judgment, operator instinct, and global network that our portfolio companies need to scale across the Atlantic.”
At Helena Capital, the mission is to build a distinctive transatlantic fund that actively bridges the mutual interests of Europe and the United States – focused on strengthening global supply chain resilience as a core pillar of global economic stability, security, and long-term growth.
Helena Capital’s investment focus is squarely on security, resilience, and critical national infrastructure, encompassing sectors such as aerospace, advanced manufacturing, and public infrastructure. The firm focuses on the commercialization gap – supporting companies that have moved beyond core invention risk but have not yet reached scaled adoption, helping them bridge into durable revenue, distribution, and long-term market integration. Nelson’s experience directly extends and strengthens this approach.
Nelson’s background prior to a16z further underscores the breadth of her expertise. Earlier in her career, she held influential roles at Gartner, where she advised C-suite executives at Fortune 500 and Global 2000 companies. She guided these organizations through major technology transitions – from the early adoption of cloud computing and mobile to the emergence of artificial intelligence. Beyond her investment and operational work, Nelson maintains an active presence in the academic community as an Executive in Residence and adjunct professor at the NYU Stern School of Business.
Katy Nelson is more than an investor; she is an operator and a proven builder of strategic functions and communities. Her unique combination of deep sector knowledge, operational excellence, and global network will be a meaningful asset as Helena Capital continues to build its reputation as a leading growth investor in critical technology and resilience. The firm looks forward to her leadership and contributions as it enters this next phase of growth.
About Helena Capital
Helena Capital is a transatlantic growth investment firm building the next generation of critical technology companies. With offices in New York and Munich, the firm partners with founders solving foundational challenges in industrial resilience, supply chain security, advanced manufacturing, aerospace, and public infrastructure. Helena Capital invests on the other side of the deep tech ‘valley of death,’ providing growth capital and hands-on operational partnership to revenue-generating companies between Series A and pre-IPO. Learn more at helenacapital.vc.
Katy Nelson, General Partner, Helena Capital
PARIS (AP) — Activists worldwide will march in May Day rallies Friday, calling for peace, higher wages and better working conditions as many workers grapple with rising energy costs and shrinking purchasing power tied to the Iran war.
The day is a public holiday in many countries, and demonstrations, some of which have turned violent in the past, are expected in many of the world's major cities.
“Working people refuse to pay the price for Donald Trump’s war in the Middle East,” the European Trade Union Confederation, which represents 93 trade union organizations in 41 European countries, said. “Today’s rallies show working people will not stand by and see their jobs and living standards destroyed.”
In the United States, activists opposing U.S. President Donald Trump’s policies are planning marches and boycotts.
Here’s what to know about May Day.
Rising living costs linked to the conflict in the Middle East are expected to be a key theme in Friday's rallies.
In the Philippines' capital of Manila, protest organizers said they expect big crowds of workers. “There will be a louder call for higher wages and economic relief because of the unprecedented spikes in fuel prices,” Renato Reyes, a leader of the left-wing political group Bayan, told The Associated Press.
“Every Filipino worker now is aware that the situation here is deeply connected to the global crisis,” said Josua Mata, leader of SENTRO umbrella group of labor federations.
In Indonesia, labor unions have warned against worsening economic pressures at home. “Workers are already living paycheck to paycheck,” said Said Iqbal, president of the Indonesian Trade Union Confederation.
In Pakistan, May Day is a public holiday marked by rallies, but many daily wage earners cannot afford to take time off.
“How will I bring vegetables and other necessities home if I don’t work?” said Mohammad Maskeen, a 55-year-old construction worker near Islamabad.
Rising oil prices have fueled inflation, which the government estimates at about 16%, in a country heavily reliant on financial support from the International Monetary Fund and allied nations.
Workers' unions traditionally use May Day to rally around wages, pensions, inequality and broader political issues.
Protests are planned from Seoul, Jakarta and Istanbul to most European Union capitals and cities across the United States.
In France, unions called for demonstrations in Paris and elsewhere under the slogan “bread, peace and freedom,” linking workers’ daily concerns to conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East.
In Italy, the government approved nearly 1 billion euros ($1.17 billion) in job incentives this week, aiming to promote stable employment and curb labor abuses ahead of May Day. The measures extend tax breaks to encourage hiring young people and disadvantaged women, and seek to address exploitation tied to platform-based work. Opposition parties dismissed the package as “pure propaganda.”
In Portugal, proposed labor law changes by the center-right government sparked a general strike and street protests last year. There is still no deal after nine months of negotiations with unions and employers. Unions say the proposals would weaken workers’ rights, including by expanding overtime limits and reducing some benefits.
May Day carries special meaning this year in France after a heated debate about whether employees should be allowed to work on the country’s most protected public holiday — the only day when most employees have a mandatory paid day off.
Almost all businesses, shops and malls are closed, and only essential sectors such as hospitals, transport and hotels are exempt.
A recent parliamentary proposal to expand work on the day prompted major outcry from unions and left-wing politicians.
“Don’t touch May Day,” workers' unions said in a joint statement.
Faced with the controversy, the government this week introduced a bill meant to expand May Day work to people staffing bakeries and florists. It is customary in France to give lily of the valley flowers on May Day as a symbol of good luck.
“May 1 is not just any day,” Small and Medium-sized Businesses Minister Serge Papin said. “It symbolizes social gains stemming from a century of building social rules that have led to the labor code we know in France. It is indeed a special day.”
Activists and labor unions are organizing street protests and boycotts across the United States, where May Day is not a federal holiday.
May Day Strong, a coalition of activist groups and labor unions, has called on people to protest under the banner of “workers over billionaires.”
Voicing strong opposition to Trump's policies, organizers listed thousands of May Day actions across the country and are seeking an economic blackout through “no school, no work, no shopping.”
Demands include taxing the rich and putting an end to the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown,
While labor and immigrant rights are historically intertwined, the focus of May Day rallies in the U.S. shifted to immigration in 2006. That’s when roughly 1 million people, including nearly half a million in Chicago alone, took to the streets to protest federal legislation that would’ve made living in the U.S. without legal permission a felony.
May Day, or International Workers’ Day, traces back more than a century to a pivotal period in U.S. labor history.
In the 1880s, unions pushed for an eight-hour workday through strikes and demonstrations. In May 1886, a Chicago rally turned deadly when a bomb exploded and police responded with gunfire. Several labor activists — most of them immigrants — were convicted of conspiracy and other charges; four were executed.
Unions later designated May 1 to honor workers. A monument in Chicago’s Haymarket Square commemorates them with the inscription: “Dedicated to all workers of the world.”
May Day is now observed in much of the world from Europe to Latin America, Africa and Asia.
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AP journalists Barry Hatton in Lisbon, Portugal, Giada Zampano in Rome, Munir Ahmed in Islamabad, Niniek Karmini in Jakarta, Indonesia, and Jim Gomez in Manila, Philippines, contributed to this story.
Union members carefully step through rain-formed puddles to participate in a May Day rally in the rain Friday, May 1, 2026, in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)
People march to mark International Workers' Day, also known as May Day, in Sydney, Friday, May 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Rick Rycroft)
People march to mark International Workers' Day, also known as May Day, in Sydney, Friday, May 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Rick Rycroft)
FILE - Activist and workers raise their clenched fists during a May Day rally in Manila, Philippines, May 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Aaron Favila, File)
Laborers protest during a May Day demonstration in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Thursday, April 30, 2026. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)
Laborers hold flares during a May Day demonstration in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Thursday, April 30, 2026. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)
Members of trade unions take part in a rally a day ahead of the International Labor Day, in Karachi, Pakistan, Thursday, April 30, 2026. The banner in center reading as 'red salute to the martyrs of Chicago and the struggle will continue until economic exploitation is ended' (AP Photo/Ali Raza)
Members of trade unions take part in a rally a day ahead of the International Labor Day, in Karachi, Pakistan, Thursday, April 30, 2026. (AP Photo/Ali Raza)
