Pia d'Iribarne

Who they are

Pia d'Iribarne is Founder and Managing Partner at Main Object Capital — previously co-founded New Wave, a $56M European seed fund, with Jean de La Rochebrochard and Xavier Niel as president.

Person

Pia started at HEC Paris (MSc, 2007–2011), then went into consulting at McKinsey before making the jump into venture — first at Accel, then Felix Capital, then Stride.VC where she became the third partner. In 2020 she co-founded New Wave with Jean de La Rochebrochard, raising a $56M seed fund in three months and building it into a top-decile European fund over four years; Xavier Niel came on as president. Portfolio touchpoints include Sweep (amplified its $100M raise) and Mistral AI (investor and public amplifier of its fundraise). She took a detour through Le Wagon's coding bootcamp somewhere along the way — a signal that she wanted to understand what she was funding, not just price it. In 2024 she stepped out of New Wave and co-founded Main Object Capital with Antoine Martin (co-founder of Zenly) and Alex Yazdi (founder of Voodoo), an early-stage firm investing between Europe and the US, based in London. The through-line is building the institution, not just the portfolio: she has co-founded two funds from scratch rather than climbing inside existing ones. She writes occasionally at medium.com/@piadiribarne on VC and the French tech ecosystem, and has spoken at Slush and HEC Paris eLab.

Network

Pia's tightest professional ties run through the founders she backed and the people she built firms with. Jean de La Rochebrochard was her co-founder at New Wave; Antoine Martin (Zenly co-founder) and Alex Yazdi (Voodoo founder) are her co-founders at Main Object. On the portfolio side, Rachel Delacour (Sweep) and Jean-Louis Quéguiner (Gladia) are named New Wave founders, and Arthur Mensch (Mistral AI) is a notable engagement she publicly amplified. Possibly — her co-hosted event with Sanna Marin points to a network that reaches into European policy and public-sector circles beyond pure tech.

Jean de La Rochebrochard· Co-founder, New Wave
Antoine Martin· Co-founder, Main Object Capital; co-founder of Zenly
Alex Yazdi· Co-founder, Main Object Capital; founder of Voodoo
Xavier Niel· President, New Wave
Rachel Delacour· Founder, Sweep (New Wave portfolio)
Jean-Louis Quéguiner· Founder, Gladia (New Wave portfolio)
Arthur Mensch· Co-founder, Mistral AI

How they likely show up

Co-founded two funds from scratch (New Wave in 2020, Main Object in 2024) rather than joining established platforms → prefers to build the structure herself rather than inherit someone else's.
Raised New Wave's $56M in three months → moves fast once conviction is there; not a prolonged deliberator.
Attended Le Wagon coding bootcamp while operating as a VC → invests in her own technical literacy, likely expects founders to go deep and values operators who can.
Occasional public writing and Slush speaking, not a prolific poster → selective about public visibility; shows up when she has something specific to say rather than broadcasting continuously.
Career path: McKinsey → Accel → Felix Capital → Stride.VC → founded New Wave → founded Main Object → each move increases ownership and decreases institutional cover → high agency, comfort with risk and blank-sheet situations.
Possibly — co-hosting an event for Sanna Marin alongside the European tech circuit suggests she operates across political and tech networks simultaneously, which may mean she thinks about the macro environment as part of investment thesis.

Conversation tips

→ Ask about the New Wave-to-Main Object transition specifically — she left a functioning fund she built to start again with new co-founders; that's a deliberate choice worth probing.
→ Reference Antoine Martin or Alex Yazdi by name — the co-founder composition at Main Object (Zenly, Voodoo) is distinctive and signals a specific bet on consumer-and-platform DNA; she'll have thought hard about that pairing.
→ Don't treat her primarily as a 'European VC' — Main Object invests between Europe and the US, so she's thinking cross-market; lead with that framing rather than pinning her to the Paris ecosystem.
→ She wrote occasionally at medium.com/@piadiribarne on VC and French tech — if you've read anything there, say so; she doesn't blast content so the signal-to-noise ratio is high.

Toolbox

Openers

Open on Main Object's co-founder lineup — Antoine Martin (Zenly) and Alex Yazdi (Voodoo) are both consumer-product builders, and pairing them with a fund founder is a specific thesis about what early-stage companies need; ask her how that came together.
Bring up the Le Wagon bootcamp — she went through a coding programme while working as a VC investor, which is an unusual move; it's a natural way into a conversation about how she evaluates technical founders.
Reference the Mistral AI investment and her public amplification of the fundraise — she was early on one of Europe's highest-profile AI rounds, and it opens a direct line into how she's thinking about AI investing at Main Object.

Discovery questions

New Wave was Paris-based and seed-focused; Main Object is London-based and investing between Europe and the US — what changed in your thesis between those two funds?
You raised $56M in three months for New Wave's first fund with Xavier Niel as president — how much did that backing shape the kinds of founders who came to you, and is that dynamic something you're replicating or deliberately resetting at Main Object?
You went through Le Wagon while you were already an active investor — what did learning to code change about how you diligence a founding team?

Avoid

Don't pitch her on European-only deal flow or frame the conversation around the Paris ecosystem — Main Object is explicitly transatlantic and she has moved her base to London, so that framing will feel like you haven't done the homework.

Make it yours