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Benjamin Cichostepski-Lesage

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 globally.

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 significant experience advising French companies expanding into the United States, and assists them over the full lifecycle of their overseas growth. He also counts a number of American investors and buyers among his clients.

From his first venture deal in 2006, where he represented Lightspeed Venture Partners in Wikio’s Series A, which became Teads, a company he then accompanied for 11 years until its sale to Altice, Ben has led more than 300 corporate tech transactions. He has been involved in the main exit transactions in recent years, particularly those with a franco-american element such as 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, Shipfix/Veson Nautical.

Ben's leadership has contributed to placing Orrick as the #1 Venture Capital and Tech Growth practice in France (ranked #1 by Pitchbook in 2021, 2022, 2023 - CF News in 2022, 2023). 

Recognized as a key lawyer in the market in venture capital and tech growth, Ben was ranked No. 1 in the "Top 10 Influential French Venture Capital Lawyers in Private Equity 2023" by Business Today. He was named "Lawyer of the Year" in the 2023 edition of Best Lawyers France in the Venture Capital category. He is also ranked as a Leading Individual by The Legal 500 EMEA in Private Equity - Venture Capital/Growth Capital since 2020 and was voted as the most active tech lawyer in France in 2019 by transaction volume in CF News’ ranking.

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
    • Agnostic: Seed
    • 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
    • Amo: Seed
    • 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
    • Docent: Seed
    • Dust: Seed
    • eNovance: Acquisition by Red Hat
    • Escape Technologies: Seed extension
    • Faume: Series A
    • Filigran: Seed, Series A
    • Fretlink: Series A, B
    • Getaround: Acquisition of Drivy
    • Glose: Acquisition by Medium
    • Heap, Inc.: Acquisition by Contentsquare
    • Hiresweet: YC flip, Seed
    • Homa Games: Series A, B
    • iBanFirst: Series B
    • Ida: Seed
    • Ilek: Series A
    • Immortal Game: Series A
    • In&Motion: Seed, Series B
    • Jow: Seed+, Series A, Series A extension
    • Kaiko: Seed, Series A, B
    • Kactus: Series A, Merger with Bird Office
    • KKRT Labs (also known as Kakarot zkEVM): Seed
    • 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, Series A
    • Monk: Acquisition by ACV Auctions
    • Nabla: Series A, B
    • 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, B
    • 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
    • Semper: Acquisition by Crowdcube
    • Sencrop: Seed, Series A
    • Shipfix: Seed, acquisition by Veson Nautical
    • 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
    • Twin Labs: Pre-Seed
    • Virgil: Seed, Series A
    • Wiiisdom: Seed
    • Zefir: Seed, Series A
    • Zenly: Series A, B, acquisition by Snap
    • Zyl: Seed, Seed extension

    Investors

    • 1kx: fxhash, Kiln
    • 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.), Willo (U.S.), Ribogenics (U.S.), Swile, Poolside.ai
    • Cathay Innovation: OnTruck, Owkin (U.S.), Beem Energy, Flowdesk, Bioptimus
    • Diamond Edge Ventures (U.S.) (Mitsubishi Chemical Corporate Venture): Lactips
    • Energy Impact Partners: Greenly
    • Fabric Ventures: Podium (previously SorareData), Only Dust
    • Frst: Escape, Riot Security, Poolside.ai
    • 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, Poolside.ai, Lago
    • Orlen VC: Shippeo
    • Play Ventures: Omada
    • 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