Nicolas Dessaigne
General Partner at Y Combinator
Nicolas Dessaigne is a General Partner at Y Combinator. He co-founded the search API company Algolia (YC W14) with Julien Lemoine in 2012 and ran it as CEO, up to about 350 people, until he hired Bernadette Nixon as his successor in 2020. Before Algolia he led research and development at the French search companies Arisem and Exalead. He holds a PhD in computer science from the University of Nantes.
- Venture capital
- Search
- Developer tools
Y Combinator
Algolia
- Now
- General Partner, Y Combinator1
- Co-founded
- Algolia (YC W14), in 20123
- Studied
- PhD, Computer Science, University of Nantes1
- At YC
- More than 3,000 office hours over 12 batches1
Experience
Algolia2012 – 2024
- Co-founder and Board Member2020 – 2024
Moved to a non-operational role on the board after handing over the CEO job.6
- Co-founder and CEO2012 – 2020
Ran the search API company until May 2020, when Bernadette Nixon took over as CEO; he said stepping aside was his own decision, so someone with more go-to-market experience could lead.6
Artifakt2020 – 2023
- Independent Board Member22020 – 2023
National Institute of Informatics (Tokyo)1999 – 2000
- Visiting Researcher21999 – 2000
Education
Milestones
- Starts as a visiting researcher at the National Institute of Informatics in Tokyo2
- Completes his PhD in computer science at the University of Nantes2
- Joins the search company Exalead as Director, Product Management2
- Co-founds Algolia with Julien Lemoine3
- Algolia raises $1.5 million from Index Ventures, Point Nine Capital and Alven Capital10
- Algolia joins Y Combinator's Winter 2014 batch3
- Algolia raises an $18.3 million Series A led by Accel Partners7
- Algolia raises a $53 million Series B led by Accel8
- Algolia closes a $110 million Series C led by Accel6
- Hands the Algolia CEO role to Bernadette Nixon and stays on the board5
- Algolia raises $150 million at a $2.25 billion valuation9
- Becomes a full-time Group Partner at Y Combinator4