ISAI

ISAI Research

Investment Thesis

ISAI (meaning "remarkable, outstanding" in Japanese) is one of the pioneers of the French Tech ecosystem and self-described as "The French Tech Entrepreneurs' Fund." Co-founded in 2009 by Pierre Kosciusko-Morizet (PriceMinister), Jean-David Chamboredon, Christophe Raynaud, Ouriel Ohayon, Stéphane Treppoz, and Geoffroy Roux de Bezieux, ISAI has built a unique model: a community of 500+ tech entrepreneur-LPs who invest capital, experience, and networks alongside the professional investment team.

With offices in Paris and New York and over €1.1 billion under management, ISAI now operates four strategies: Early-Stage Venture, Corporate Venture, Growth Lending, and Tech Buyout. The fund's core thesis is identifying capital-efficient French tech startups with "strong but progressive ambition," a blue ocean positioning, and the potential to become market leaders. ISAI favors SaaS and marketplace models that can scale efficiently with limited capital, and increasingly backs AI-enabled companies that transform existing services—the "pick and shovel" enablers rather than pure AI gold prospectors.

More than €20 billion in revenue and 70,000 jobs have been created by the companies of ISAI's investor-entrepreneurs, demonstrating the depth of the ecosystem they've built.

Sector Focus

ISAI invests broadly across the French tech stack with particular strength in:

• Enterprise Software: SaaS platforms, workflow automation, and B2B tools (360Learning, Malt, Dashdoc, Synera, Expensya)
• Developer Tools & Infrastructure: Cloud infrastructure, orchestration platforms, open-source tooling (Koyeb, Kestra, Nuxt, Platform.sh)
• Consumer Apps & Marketplaces: Sharing economy and peer-to-peer platforms (BlaBlaCar, Evaneos, Wecasa, HomeExchange, Gens de Confiance)
• Fintech & Payments: SME lending, BNPL, crypto market making (Alma, Finfrog, Silvr, Flowdesk)
• Security & Cybersecurity: Bot protection and email security (Datadome, Vadesecure, Advens)
• Marketing & AdTech: Performance marketing and influencer platforms (Adikteev, Upfluence, Pubstack)
• Healthcare Digital: Digital health and medtech platforms (Cardiologs, Teale, Invivox)
• Climate & Clean Energy: Decarbonization technology (Carbyon, Ecoworks)
• HR Tech: Workforce management and training (Javelo, Mercateam)
• AI (cross-vertical): Increasingly a primary investment lens across all sectors (Naboo, Synera, GoCanopy, Temelion, Poolside)

Stage Focus

ISAI operates across multiple stages through its distinct fund vehicles:

• ISAI Venture (Early Stage): Pre-seed to post-seed. Invests €100k–€3M as lead or co-lead of first institutional rounds in companies with early signs of product-market fit. A "super angel" pocket (€100k–€500k, 10% of fund) operates at pre-seed alongside business angels. Over 80% of Venture investments are in France.
• ISAI Cap Venture (with Capgemini): €1M–€5M tickets in Series A–D for enterprise software, AI infrastructure, and sustainability.
• ISAI Build Venture (with Bouygues): €500k–€5M in Seed–Series C for construction, real estate, mobility, and energy transformation.
• ISAI Expansion (Growth & Buyout): Growth Buyout and Tech Growth transactions for companies with €10M+ revenue and high gross margins (SaaS, marketplaces, tech-enabled services).
• ISAI Growth Lending: Senior or mezzanine debt financing for companies with €5M+ revenue and proven business models.

Check Size

For ISAI Venture (early stage): €100k to €3M per investment, in rounds of €500k to €6M. The fund targets lead or co-lead positions. In Corporate VC funds (Cap Venture, Build Venture): €500k to €5M per ticket.

Lead Tendency

ISAI leads or co-leads the first institutional financing round in early-stage investments, functioning as the company's first VC partner. They describe themselves as acting with "business angel agility" while bringing full VC support and their 500+ entrepreneur network. In growth and later-stage follow-ons, they participate as supporting investors.

Recent Activity

ISAI has been highly active across all strategies in 2025–2026:

• June 2026: Published major thesis essay questioning the "Rule of 40" and proposing the AICE (AI Cost & Efficiency) framework for evaluating SaaS companies in the AI era
• May 2026: ProcurePro raised $15M (ISAI Build Venture participated via Bouygues partnership)
• April 2026: Synera raised $40M Series B to scale agentic AI engineering
• March 2026: Kestra raised $25M Series A (with continued ISAI participation); Foresight raised $25M Series A
• 2026: Naboo raised $70M Series B from Lightspeed Venture Partners (ISAI participated as existing investor)
• December 2025: Announced first closing of ISAI Venture IV at approximately €75M (targeting €100M)
• April 2025: Launched ISAI Cap Venture II with Capgemini
• February 2025: ISAI Expansion III closed at €300M hard cap

Portfolio Highlights

Flagship investments:

• BlaBlaCar: European ridesharing unicorn—ISAI's signature early investment
• Malt: European freelance marketplace, European leader
• 360Learning: Collaborative learning platform ($50M+ ARR)
• Datadome: AI-powered bot protection and online fraud prevention
• Alma: Buy now pay later for e-commerce merchants
• Flowdesk: Crypto market making infrastructure
• Kestra: Open-source workflow orchestration (26,000+ GitHub stars, 30,000+ org users including Apple, Toyota, JPMorgan)
• Koyeb: Serverless cloud infrastructure platform
• Poolside: AI code generation platform
• Pasqal: Quantum computing hardware and software
• Naboo: AI-powered corporate events procurement ($150M business volume, $70M Series B from Lightspeed)
• Synera: Agentic AI engineering platform ($40M Series B)
• Platform.sh: Cloud PaaS

Notable exits:

• Cardiologs: Acquired by Philips (EEG analysis AI)
• Stickyads: Acquired by Comcast ($100M+)
• Logmatic.io: Acquired by Datadog
• Storetail: Acquired by Criteo
• Quitoque: Acquired by Carrefour
• Ascentiel Groupe: Sold to Cobepa (Growth & Buyout)
• Teemo: Acquired by Near

Team

Venture Capital:

• Jean-David Chamboredon, CEO & Executive Chairman — Co-founded ISAI in 2009; former Capgemini (13 years, launched Telemedia Lab in Silicon Valley 1997), CTO at Europatweb, Partner at Viventures and 3i Group; main ISAI investments: BlaBlaCar, 360Learning, Malt, Datadome; Ecole Polytechnique graduate
• Jean-Patrice Anciaux, General Partner — Joined 2021; former Investment Director at Bpifrance Digital Venture (2015–2021), GM at Paris Business Angels (2013–2015); main ISAI investments: Axeptio, Nuxt, Kestra
• François Collet, General Partner — Joined 2021; former Co-Head of Venture at Raise (2018–2021), Seed fund manager at 360 Capital (2015–2018); previous investments include Exotec, ManoMano
• Juliette Mopin, Venture Partner — Joined ISAI 2018 (Venture Partner since 2026); former Microsoft, NUMA India, STATION F; main investments: Flowdesk, Koyeb, Beside, Naboo, Opal, Mercateam
• William Vermont, Venture Capital — Joined 2020; former Global Founders Capital/Rocket Internet; main investments: Dashdoc, Ondorse
• Christophe Raynaud, Venture Partner (Co-Founder) — Co-founded ISAI 2009; former ChateauOnLine, NetBoussole (assets sold to Microsoft), Samaris; Head of Paris Business Angels 2007–2008; left management 2021; main investments: Evaneos, Adikteev, CodinGame
• Jerome Joaug, Investor, Venture Capital
• Simon Béguin, Investor, Venture Capital
• Arthur Falinower, Investor, Venture Capital
• Arnaud de Scorbiac, Investor, Venture Capital
• Louison Jost, Investor, Venture Capital
• Paul Strachman, ISAI NYC — Coordinates US portfolio support and US deal sourcing

Growth & Buyout:

• Pierre Martini, Partner
• Nicolas Martineau, Partner
• Christophe Poupinel, Partner
• Pierre Dumas, Partner
• Aude Lapillonne, Partner
• Thaddée Le Bret, Partner
• Florian Pierre, Partner
• Pénélope Tardy, Partner

Growth Lending:

• Pierre Cousin, Partner (also active in Venture)
• Sebastien Ritter, Partner

Investor Relations & ESG:

• Caroline Gibert, Director of Investor Relations & ESG

Geographic Focus

ISAI invests primarily in France—targeting over 80% of ISAI Venture investments domestically—with selective US investments supporting French entrepreneurs already established in the United States. Their New York office (led by Paul Strachman) coordinates US portfolio support and local deal sourcing. Corporate VC and Growth strategies invest globally, particularly in enterprise software.

Decision Process

Partnership model chaired by CEO Jean-David Chamboredon. A Strategic Committee (Pierre Kosciusko-Morizet, Geoffroy Roux de Bezieux, Stéphane Treppoz) supports with pre-selection of major investments. General Partners Anciaux and Collet drive early-stage deal sourcing. ISAI is known for acting with "business angel agility" at early stage—moving quickly while bringing the full weight of their 500+ entrepreneur network.

Founder Preferences

ISAI backs entrepreneurs with:

• Strong but progressive ambition toward category leadership
• Capital-efficient business models (SaaS, marketplaces)
• Blue ocean positioning with differentiated market approach
• Deep domain expertise (technical or sector-specific)
• French origin or strong connection to the French ecosystem
• Early commercial traction or clear product-market fit signals

ISAI explicitly avoids companies facing the "SaaSpocalypse" (core proposition commoditized by AI-native alternatives) and pure AI gold prospectors without defensible pick-and-shovel positioning.