Olivier Garel, vice-president of mergers and acquisitions, replaced Martin Grieve as head of fast-moving consumer goods company Unilever’s corporate venturing and private equity unit in 2013 and five years on has delivered strong results, including December’s flotation of Mirriad, a UK-based video technology developer.
Garel, a long-term Unilever executive, took over after Unilever committed a further $450m to its corporate venturing unit’s third fund to help the now-Netherlands-based conglomerate expand from Europe into Asia.
In the past year, Unilever and Amazon partnered venture capital firm IDG Ventures India for an accelerator scheme. The IDG Ventures India 2017 Innovation Program will target startups in consumer technology, software, healthcare technology and fintech that are looking to raise between $500,000 and $5m in seed or series A funding.
It also revealed the 30 startups that will participate in the Southeast Asia edition of its Unilever Foundry hub in 2017.
Garel was a student at Université Paris Dauphine and Université Paris Nord.