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Benjamin Cichostepski

Partner

Paris

Paris Tech Studio

Benjamin Cichostepski-Lesage leads Orrick’s Technology Companies Group in France from the Paris Tech Studio.

Ben is the founding partner of Orrick's French Tech Companies Group. For more than 15 years, he has been advising high-potential innovative companies as well as Venture and Tech Growth investors on all their corporate private equity and M&A transactions in France and worldwide.

As such, he is involved in every stage of their development, from incubation and fundraising to external growth and industrial exits as well as public offerings (IPO, secondary).

Ben has notably a recognized experience in assisting French companies seeking to establish themselves in the United States. He assists French start-ups throughout their growth overseas as well as a clientele of American investors or buyers.

From his first venture deal in 2006, where he represented Lightspeed Venture Partners in Wikio’s Series A, which became Teads, a company that he then accompanied for 11 years until its sale to Altice, Ben has led more than 260 Corporate Tech transactions and has been involved in the main exit transactions in recent years, particularly Franco-American ones (Neolane/Adobe, La Fourchette/TripAdvisor, Stupeflix/GoPro, eNovance/Red Hat, Regaind, Zenly/Snap, Teads/Altice, Getaround/Drivy, Glose/Medium, Sqreen/Datadog, Lalilo/Renaissance Learning, Tempow/Google, Context/Integral Ad Science, Monk/ACV Auctions, Cajoo/Flink).

Ben's leadership has contributed to placing the firm's Tech practice in the Top 3 of most active law firms in France (Capital Finance’s ranking of “the most active law firms in French venture capital" in 2019, 2020 and 2021 – Capital Finance is the weekly business newsletter of Les Echos, the French equivalent of FT and WSJ –, PitchBook's 2023 ranking).

Recognized as a key lawyer in the market in Venture and Tech Growth, Ben is ranked as the most active tech lawyer in France in 2019 by transaction volume in CFNews’ ranking (February 2020 – CFNews is the French equivalent of PitchBook and focuses on private equity data). He is also ranked by Chambers Europe and The Legal 500 EMEA in Private Equity - Venture Capital/Growth Capital since 2020. He was voted "Lawyer of the Year" in the 2023 edition of Best Lawyers France in the Venture Capital category.

Ben is the founder of Orrick Paris Tech Studio, a one of a kind office and working space created in June 2022 and located in the heart of the Paris Tech scene, which is the headquarters of Orrick's French Tech practice.

  • Representative transactions include the following:

    Companies and founders

    • Acinq: Seed, Series A
    • Alan: Series A, B, C, D, E, acquisition of Jour
    • Algolia: YC flip, Series A, B, C, D
    • Allisone: Seed, acquisition of Spotimplant
    • Alltricks: Seed extension, acquisition by Decathlon
    • Ambler: Series A
    • Api.video: Series A
    • Athenian: Seed
    • Bastion Technologies: Seed
    • Beam: Seed, Series A
    • Blobr: Seed
    • BulldozAir: YC Flip, Series A
    • Botify: Series B, C
    • Cajoo: Seed, Series A, acquisition by Flink
    • Chefclub: Series B
    • Comand AI: Pre-seed
    • Comet: Seed extension, Series A
    • Cometh: Seed
    • Conduktor: Series A
    • Context: Acquisition by Integral Ad Science
    • Dark: Seed
    • Dataiku: Acquisition of a stake by Capital G/Google, Series D, E, F
    • Descartes Underwriting: Series B
    • Dust: Seed
    • eNovance: Acquisition by Red Hat
    • Escape Technologies: Seed extension
    • Faume: Series A
    • Filigran: Seed
    • Fretlink: Series A, B
    • Getaround: Acquisition of Drivy
    • Glose: Acquisition by Medium
    • Hiresweet: YC flip, Seed
    • Homa Games: Series A, B
    • iBanFirst: Series B
    • Ilek: Series A
    • Immortal Game: Series A
    • In&Motion: Seed, Series B
    • Jow: Seed+, Series A
    • Kaiko: Seed, Series A, B
    • Kactus: Series A, Merger with Bird Office
    • Klaxoon: Series B
    • La Fourchette: Acquisition by TripAdvisor
    • Lalilo: Series A, acquisition by Renaissance Learning
    • Livestorm: Series A, B
    • Luko: Seed, Series A, B
    • Maki: Seed
    • Mistral AI: Seed
    • Monk: Acquisition by ACV Auctions
    • Nabla: Series A
    • Neolane: Acquisition by Adobe
    • OneLeaf: Seed
    • Opal os: Seed
    • Paycar: Seed, acquisition by Le Bon Coin
    • Payfit: Series B, C, D, E
    • Phagos: Seed
    • PhotoRoom: Series A
    • Polar Analytics: Seed, Series A
    • Regaind: Acquisition by a leading tech company (U.S.)
    • Regate: Series A
    • Rize ag: Pre-seed
    • Saagie: Series A extension, B
    • Sencrop: Seed, Series A
    • Shipfix: Seed
    • Shipup: Seed, Series A
    • SimpliField: Series B, acquisition by Field Agent
    • Sorare: Seed, Seed extension, Series A, B
    • Sqreen: YC flip, Series A, acquisition by Datadog
    • Strapi: Seed, Series A, B
    • Stupeflix: Seed, acquisition by GoPro
    • Tempow: Seed, acquisition by Google
    • Totem: Seed, Seed Extension, Series A
    • Virgil: Seed, Series A
    • Wiiisdom: Seed
    • Zefir: Seed, Series A
    • Zenly: Series A, B, acquisition by Snap
    • Zyl: Seed, Seed extension

    Investors

    • 1kx: fxhash
    • Ace Capital Partners: Preligens (previously Earthcube)
    • Alma Mundi Ventures: +simple, Unkle
    • Atlantic Bridge (UK): iObeya
    • Atomico (UK): Oh Bibi!, SheeldMarket
    • Battery Ventures: Shippeo
    • Bessemer Venture Partners (U.S.): Criteo
    • Blacksheep (It): Scibids
    • BNP Paribas Solar Impulse Venture Fund: Phenix
    • Bpifrance: Kyriba (U.S.), Launchmetrics (U.S.), LumpApps, Ornikar, Owkin (U.S.), Prodontis (U.S.), Ribogenics (U.S.), Swile
    • Cathay Innovation: OnTruck, Owkin (U.S.), Beem Energy
    • Diamond Edge Ventures (U.S.) (Mitsubishi Chemical Corporate Venture): Lactips
    • Energy Impact Partners: Greenly
    • Fabric Ventures: Podium (previously SorareData)
    • Frst: Escape, Riot Security
    • Hardware Club: Remedee Labs, Cowboy, Augmenta
    • Highland Europe: Le Collectionist
    • Idinvest/Eurazeo: Swile, Unkle
    • Index Ventures (UK): Ankorstore, Swile
    • LFX Venture Partners: Shippeo
    • Lighstpeed Venture Partners (U.S./ISR): Wikio (aka Teads)
    • Maki.vc: EverDye
    • Mundi Ventures (SP): +Simple.fr
    • New Wave: Yavin, Gladia
    • Orlen VC: Shippeo
    • Raise Capital: Courbet, Jabmo, Bergamotte
    • Sequoia Capital: EVY, Elyn, Pennylane, Gladia
    • Serena Capital: Work4, Powder, Norbert Health
    • Stride VC: Purchasely
    • Upfront Ventures (U.S.): Ynsect, Prevision.io
    • XAnge: DynAdmic, Believe, Greenly