NE

Nicolas Essayan

Founding Partner at Motier Ventures

Paris, Île-de-France

Overview 

Nicolas Essayan is a Founding Partner at Motier Ventures in Paris, with a background in investment banking and private equity. He has successfully invested in a range of companies across sectors like gaming/eSports, cybersecurity, and FinTech, including Swaive, Dust, and Karmine Corp. Essayan's career highlights include founding successful ventures like CodeReef and Yakti, as well as holding key roles at Apax Partners and Morgan Stanley. His investment portfolio showcases a track record of supporting innovative startups at various stages of growth.

Work Experience 

DV

Drysdale Ventures

  • Founder

    2025 - Current

    Angel fund backed by tech entrepreneurs, international investors and several family offices. Up to €500k as Business Angel in Pre-Seeds and Seeds, and following on next rounds. Focus on FinTech & DeFi, Infra & Tooling, Consumer & Gaming, and Business Solutions, with Artificial Intelligence as transversal expertise. ➡️ (Re)built a professional investment platform in 2 months. ➡️ Invested in 10 companies (and counting 🚀)

MV

Motier Ventures

  • Co-Founder

    2021 - 2024

    Family office backing software start-ups in 6 categories with AI and blockchain as transversal expertise. Invested in 92 companies including Dust, Mistral, Poolside, Filigran, Adaptive, Payflows, Autone, New Tales and more. ➡️ Built a professional investment platform from the ground up. ➡️ Managed a deal flow of 300+ monthly opportunities in Pre-Seed and Seed. ➡️ Organized two editions of The GenAI Show gathering the French AI ecosystem.

C

CodeReef

  • Co-Founder

    2019 - 2020

    Platform that enables fast prototyping and benchmarking of Machine Learning systems. ➡️ Incepted @StationF as part of Entrepreneur First program. ➡️ Contributed to the not-for-profit CKnowledge foundation.

Y

Yakti

  • Co-Founder

    2018 - 2020

    Messaging-as-a-service API that provides secured chat, voice, and video messaging for mobile and web apps. ➡️ Raised pre-seed from BAs. ➡️ Sold to the founder of cybersecurity company Synaktiv.

A

Apax

  • Director

    2010 - 2018

    Private equity investor focusing on Tech and Financial Services companies across Europe. Identification of new investment opportunities, deals execution, monitoring and assistance of portfolio companies notably in completing build-up acquisitions. ➡️ 12 deals closed in 8 countries. ➡️ >€500m equity put at work. >€600m debt raised. ➡️ 28% and 2.8x fully realized returns.

MS

Morgan Stanley

  • Associate

    2005 - 2009

    Investment banking professional advising corporates and PE funds in their M&A, LBO and capital markets operations. Generalist profile involved in the coverage of some key French accounts operating in various industries notably in Tech. Participated in cross-border deals involving international and multi-cultural teams. ➡️ 9 closed transactions advised. ➡️ >€20Bn aggregated enterprise value.

Morgan Stanley Venture Partners is a private equity firm that invests in high-growth companies in the technology and healthcare industries.

morganstanley.com

Education 

Investments 

Swaive

Pre Seed

Total funding: $2M

Dust

Seed

Total funding: $21M

Karmine Corp

Seed

Total funding amount not yet available

Omi

Seed

Total funding: $20M

Articles About Nicolas

Relevant Websites