# Christine de Wendel

> Christine de Wendel is the co-founder and U.S. CEO of sunday, the QR-code checkout company that shrinks the worst part of dinner - waiting for the bill - from roughly fifteen minutes to about ten seconds. She spent two decades scaling European e-commerce unicorns Zalando and ManoMano out of Paris before founding sunday at age 40 with Big Mamma restaurateurs Victor Lugger and Tigrane Seydoux, then moved home to Atlanta to plant the company's U.S. flag. A Georgetown School of Foreign Service graduate who once wanted to run the United Nations, she now runs a hospitality-payments business that has processed billions in restaurant transactions.

- **Role:** Co-Founder & CEO US at sunday
- **Organizations:** sunday (sundayapp), ManoMano, Zalando, Starwood Hotels, Bain & Company
- **From:** Atlanta, Georgia, United States
- **Nationality:** American
- **Education:** BS, International Relations (SFS'02), Georgetown University, School of Foreign Service, International Relations, London School of Economics, High school, Atlanta International School
- **Known for:** Co-founded sunday and built it to roughly 400 employees across 8 countries within its first year, Helped raise about $124-125M in early funding for sunday from investors including Coatue and New Wave, Scaled European e-commerce unicorns Zalando and ManoMano as an operator before founding her own company

## Career timeline

- **2002** — Graduates Georgetown School of Foreign Service; fails the U.S. Foreign Service oral exam three times and enters management consulting at Bain & Company in Paris as a 'default'
- **2000s** — Manages business development for Starwood Hotels
- **2012** — Leads the Paris launch of e-commerce fashion platform Zalando
- **2010s** — Becomes COO / Country Manager France at DIY marketplace ManoMano, scaling it toward unicorn status
- **2021** — Co-founds sunday with Victor Lugger and Tigrane Seydoux (Big Mamma group); sunday raises about $20M+ seed and a $24M round; relocates from Paris to Atlanta to launch the U.S. business at age 40
- **2021** — Sunday raises roughly $124-125M across seed/Series A inside its first year, scaling to ~400 employees across 8 countries
- **2022-2023** — Market shift forces a restructuring of roughly 75%; company refocuses on profitable growth
- **2024-2025** — Sunday reports billions in processed transaction volume; continues operating across the U.S. and Europe with Atlanta as U.S. headquarters

## Achievements

- Co-founded sunday and built it to roughly 400 employees across 8 countries within its first year
- Helped raise about $124-125M in early funding for sunday from investors including Coatue and New Wave
- Scaled European e-commerce unicorns Zalando and ManoMano as an operator before founding her own company
- Drove restaurant checkout time from about 15 minutes down to roughly 10 seconds
- Achieved up to 95% diner adoption and 12% faster table turnover in European deployments

## Latest updates

- **2025-11** — Sunday's most recent funding recorded as a Series B with a raise around the $20M range, per aggregated investor data.
- **2024-06** — Featured at Fintech South 2024 discussing sunday's growth and the U.S. restaurant payments market.

## Links

- Website: https://sundayapp.com
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christine-de-wendel
- Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/sundayapp_
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wendelchristinede/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sundayappUS

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/christine-wendel
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-06-04