Rising Stars 2023: Wendy Wattebled

Wendy Wattebled came into corporate innovation through the entrepreneurship route, having co-founded online property development tool WLG Real Estate Network in 2012. She took up a managing director role at another startup, entrepreneurial innovation support service Agorize, a year later.

Wattebled describes herself as being “passionate about entrepreneurs” and being sympathetic to them, based on her own experience as a founder and operator. She moved into venture capital when she joined at VC firm Breega Capital as a senior associate in 2016.

C.Entrepreneurs, the joint venture between insurance provider BNP Paribas Cardif and VC fund Cathay Innovation, hired Wattebled as head of startup investments in 2018. During her time there, she focused on backing and supporting financial and insurance technology developers including Curve, Kueski and Another Brain.

The role at Convivialité Ventures, the corporate venture capital arm of France-headquartered liqueur provider Pernod Ricard, came in 2020. Wattebled, who is based in Paris, where she focuses on Europe, the Middle East and Africa, and Latin America.

Convivialité Ventures, founded in 2017, has a team of eight people based in San Francisco, Shanghai and Paris, and is now venturing into India. The investment arm aims to move parent company Pernod Ricard beyond wines and spirits into entertainment and experiences. The unit has 41 investments in its portfolio,
including holdings in food delivery companies such as Glovo (acquired by Delivery Hero last year), Gorillas, and Jokr, travel brands such as Dharma and Resortpass, and non-alcoholic drinks brands such as Liquid Death Mountain Water, a water brand that raised a $70m series D round in October 2022.

The unit targets series A to D-stage startups. Recent deals for Convivialité Ventures include the $23.5m series B funding round for Join Ventures, the Indian direct-to- consumer ecommerce marketplace, and a $80m series B funding round for Not So Dark, a delivery service that helps existing restaurants build an additional delivery-based business.

See the rest of our Top 50 Rising Stars for 2023 here.