The Frenchwoman has been promoting the start-up scene since 2021.
(Photo: French Tech)
Paris Clara Chappaz welcomes you to a sparse, small office in the Paris start-up center Station F. From here, she helps determine the future of the French tech industry. The 34-year-old is head of Mission French Tech, which has been promoting promising start-ups on behalf of the government since 2013. The French is an exceptional woman in a man’s world.
“There is only one woman in the Next 40, the group of startups of the future. More women are even represented in the CAC 40 stock market index. This strengthens our ambition to increase the share in this area,” says Chappaz in an interview with the Handelsblatt.
Under the Next 40, French Tech summarizes companies that have the potential to become global technology leaders. These include Back Market, an online retailer for used electronics products, the online hardware store Mano Mano and the doctor’s appointment platform Doctolib.
As in many other countries, the French start-up scene is male-dominated. According to a study by Boston Consulting and the Sista collective, only 18 percent of the leadership teams of the Next 40 are women. A quarter of the 120 largest startups have no women in senior positions, Chappaz explains. For Germany, the figures are comparable; only every fifth start-up in this country is founded by a woman.
The start-up promoter sees this as a challenge: “Women are looking for role models. However, job advertisements often state: “Wanted for an IT developer” or “Wanted for an assistant”, she says. Chappaz wants to change this distribution of roles. That will not be easy. 50 percent of French start-ups are founded by engineers and in courses such as engineering or computer science. In many cases, the job opportunities in the area are not yet well known.
The proportion of women on boards of directors should increase
So far, unlike in large companies, there are no quotas for women in start-ups in France. “But many companies are already trying to become more feminine and have started initiatives to do so,” says Chappaz. It launched a parity pact with 72 major French start-ups, followed by others. “It’s unthinkable that the future will only be determined by men for men,” explains Chappaz. “Women must have their place and could set other nuances.”
The aim of the pact is to achieve 20 percent women on the boards of directors by 2025 and then 40 percent by 2028. Another problem is that a lot can change in start-ups in a short space of time. For example, women should be supported on maternity leave so that they don’t lose touch. The funding is also important because one in two new jobs will be created in the digital sector in the future.
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Chappaz, who has been in office since autumn 2021, made her entry into the male world with an extremely varied CV. Most recently, she was Chief Business Officer at luxury fashion platform Vestiaire Collective, where she worked alongside German founder Maximilian Bittner.
When she was appointed head of French Tech, he enthused: “What makes Clara unique is her experience in tech and fashion in Asia and Europe and her studies in the USA. Her experience is greater than most people her age.”
Clara Chappaz has a lot of international experience
The daughter of an entrepreneur – her father Pierre Chappaz founded, among other things, the price comparison portal Kelkoo – and a professor, after studying at the elite French business school Essec, she first became enthusiastic about Asia. She worked for Pernod Ricard in Hong Kong and fashion retailer Zalora in Thailand. After that she went to Harvard and got an MBA. She also founded the start-up Lullaby, a platform for used children’s things.
After a detour via London, she came to Vestiaire Collective in 2019. Bittner already knew her from Asia, where he managed Lazada. She was responsible for making the platform more international.
>> Read also: Start-ups receive less venture capital – France is lagging behind Germany
The international orientation led her to French Tech: “I was looking for a new challenge, not in a company but at a higher level,” says Chappaz. She currently accompanies more than 200 start-ups, which are among the most promising in France.
The French start-up scene should become more female and international.
(Photo: imago/viennaslide)
There are a total of 25,000 start-ups in the country with around one million jobs. Chappaz wants to anchor them better in Europe and increase their international influence. Cooperation with large companies should also be supported.
France should become an attractive country for the start-up industry – for both men and women. “I am confident. The next few years will show that women have their place in French start-ups,” says Chappaz.
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