French Tech: the 10 women to follow in 2023

Posted on 16 Jan. 2023 at 8:51 amUpdated January 16, 2023 at 9:52 am

10 years, 100 women. Since 2013, the Sista collective, which aims to narrow the founder-founder funding gap in French Tech, has published a list of ten women to follow in tech.

This year is special because the association has decided not only to integrate women entrepreneurs and investors, but also women in key positions in large start-ups. Here is their ranking, in alphabetical order.

Vera Baker, partner at unconventional ventures

Vera Baker, an American who has been living in Paris for ten years, is a partner in Unconventional Ventures, a Danish fund that aims to invest in founders and founders who are underrepresented in the European technology ecosystem.

With a resume as long as her arm, she has multiplied her experiences in the world of venture capital (Atomico, January Ventures, Jua Fund…) and even created the newsletter “For Color girls who tech”. The latter highlights key entrepreneurs from the American, European and African ecosystems.

Prior to entering finance, Vera Baker was active in politics in the United States, most notably in the Senate as Chief of Staff.

Celine Chung, co-founder of Bao Family

“Little Bao” will grow big. In 2018, Céline Chung stepped into the deep end of entrepreneurship by becoming co-founder of Bao-Family, a restaurant chain specializing in Chinese cuisine. Five years later, three new addresses have sold out, while a bakery and a delivery service have also expanded the ‘family’.

Having grown up with one foot in every culture, the young French-Chinese studied business administration and joined Wavestone as a consultant for three years. There she mainly takes care of digital transformation projects within CAC 40 groups. Unhappy in this universe that she finds uniform and rigid, she drops everything to become a waitress and then joins the teams of the famous restaurant Paris New York as a “chief of staff”. “, before transforming the test.

Saskia Fiszel, co-founder of Virgil

Saskia Fiszel, co-founder of Virgil.Dr

“Breaking the stone ceiling. With this mantra in mind, Saskia Fiszel co-founded Virgil in 2018, a start-up specializing in real estate investment assistance for young people. Four years later, she raised fifteen million euros through fundraising.

She fell into the real estate pool thanks to Onefinestay, which she joined a few months after its launch in 2013, and participated in the start-up’s European conquest until its resale to Accor for 150 million euros. A graduate of Sciences Po Paris, ESSEC and the University of North Carolina in the United States, she also did some raids at Publicis and L’Oréal early in her career.

Saskia Fiszel is also the creator of Spoune, a newsletter to help younger generations become financially independent. It shows 50,000 subscribers and a 50% open rate.

Tara Heuzé-Sarmini, co-founder and CEO of Commune

“We want to help working single mothers and fathers breathe,” Tara Heuzé-Sarmini told “Echos Start” a few months ago. In 2021, Swiss Army knife entrepreneur will launch Commune, the first-ever co-living company dedicated to single-parent families. In 2022, it will complete a financing round of 1.5 million euros to finance the opening of the first two homes, scheduled for this year.

Tara Heuzé-Sarmin, a brilliant student – with great honors in the baccalaureate at Henri-IV, graduated from the universities of Cambridge in England and Columbia in New York – kindled a first spark in France by founding Rules Elementary, the first association fight against menstrual insecurity and Glouglou, a start-up that offers reusable water bottles.

At less than thirty years old, she is already collecting prizes in France and abroad. In addition to being selected from the 30 under 30 who will change France by “Vanity Fair”, she is one of the 35 responsible leaders under 35 according to the Positive Planet x “Les Echos Start” Foundation.

Léa Joussaume, Vice President responsible for operations at Luko

In eight years of career, Léa Joussaume has worked in three start-ups. The first, Wine Passport, specialist in wine tours and weekends, where she was a jack-of-all-trades. Then go to Mon Docteur, the medical appointment booking site acquired by Doctolib in 2018. This time she focuses on communication.

But he didn’t like the big Doctolib machine very much. Therefore, the young woman quickly left the French unicorn and ended up with Luko. The French insurtech, which specializes in home insurance, had less than ten employees at the time.

For a year she rediscovered the ‘start-up spirit’ and the jack-of-all-trades side. She then tackles the topics of communication and branding, with which Luko mainly achieves organic growth. In September 2022, she was appointed vice president of start-up operations and leads a team of around fifty start-ups.

Julia Néel Biz, co-founder and CEO of Teale

Julia Néel Biz, co-founder and CEO of Teale.Dr

Faced with a painful family drama, Julia Néel Biz, then Vice President at VTC Freenow, made it her mission to change this paradigm and in January 2021 co-created Teale, a mental health platform for businesses.

The sector, boosted by the pandemic, is thriving, but funding remains modest compared to Anglo-Saxon or Scandinavian countries.

This Essec graduate also directed Untold, a series of documentaries that aimed to “break the image of the superhero leader who must always be sane, and on the contrary show that there is some form of strength and courage to accept his vulnerability”, she explains.

In his eyes, physical health monopolizes attention, but mental health is too often overlooked. She is deeply involved in the French tech ecosystem and is also on the board of directors of France Digitale, an association that brings together start-ups and French investors.

Clotilde Rousseau, Chief Revenue Officer of Batch

Clotilde Rousseau, Chief Revenue Officer of Batch.Dr

Profitability has become the watchword for start-ups. The weight of Clotilde Rousseau, Chief Revenue Officer of Batch (CRO), a start-up specializing in sending mobile and web notifications, is therefore becoming increasingly strategic.

Not to deter this 30-year-old who pursued a higher education under the seal of excellence (Science Po Paris, HEC, one-year exchange in California) and worked at Adomik, before joining Batch in 2019.

As part of her work, the 30-year-old like milk on the fire monitors the cash inflow of the company that raised 20 million euros in 2021 and identifies new potential sources of income. A demanding job in an economic context where the shadow of the recession hangs and is characterized by greater investor reluctance.

Maud Sarda, co-founder of Label Emmaüs

Maud Sarda, co-founder of Label Emmaüs.Dr

The social and solidarity economy anchored in the body, we regularly hear it rebelling against the epidemic of greenwashing. Co-founder of Label Emmaüs in 2016, “the online extension of the Emmaüs struggle and a real counter-model to the giants of e-commerce”, Maud Sarda also allows people in situations of exclusion to train in the professions of e-commerce commerce .

The cooperative now has 60 employees, a third of whom are working on integration, and 1,400 have been trained in online sales.

Before starting his business, this Edhec graduate spent 5 years at Emmaüs and Accenture. In addition to her professional activities, Maud Sarda is also a member of the board of directors of Mouvement Impact France (the movement of social entrepreneurs) and is one of the “LinkedIn top voices” 2022.

Marguerite de Tavernost, investor at Ledger Cathay Fund

A graduate of the London School of Economics and Kings College, Marguerite de Tavernost began her career in London as a digital strategy consultant for large groups. She then multiplied her experience in UK funds and start-ups before joining Berlin-based fund Cherry Ventures.

Since August 2022, she is an investor for the Web3 fund launched by Ledger and Cathay. She is also a professional photographer and creator of NFT.

Dounia Wone, director of environment and inclusion at Vestiaire Collective

Dounia Wone is clearly not one of the French Tech clones. No high school except an aborted language license, a humble childhood, a professional start as a stopover with Air France and most of his career in the political world, with ecologists.

In 2020, the young woman was poached by the private sector and chose to practice the very trendy profession of “chief impact & integration” within the French unicorn Vestiaire Collective. The 36-year-old leads environmental and diversity strategies both internally and externally, with a small team of four.

Among his works, pell-mell: places in nurseries for young parents, the creation of “task forces” on various topics (LGBT +, women, parents, etc.). And more recently, the phasing out of fast fashion on the platform, to which lobbying activities to promote the circular economy have been added.

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