Good news for everyone that has been trying to get their hands on a hardware wallet but found retailers to be completely out of stock in your area – the situation has urged investors to step in and the shortage might be addressed soon. Bitcoin hardware wallet maker Ledger has secured an extra $75 million to expand its production capabilities, in one of the largest VC investments in the space to date.
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Ledger Raises Another $75M
Paris-based cryptocurrency hardware wallet manufacturer, Ledger, has announced today it raised $75 million (EUR 61 million) in a Series B funding round, led by venture capital fund Draper Esprit. The company says this investment will be used to significantly scale up its operations to answer growing market demand.
Ledger had already raised $8.3 million in a Series A back in March 2017 to build a new factory in China. The latest round has brought additional funding from Draper Venture Network funds, Firstmark Capital, Cathay Innovation, and Korelya Capital. Existing investors, Caphorn Invest, Gdtre and Digital Currency Group, also participated in the round. Seed and Series A investor Xange remains at the capital.
Billionaire bitcoin investor, Tim Draper, commented: “Ledger creates security for cryptocurrency far beyond what I get from my bank. This is where people store money now. Ledger lets me take control of my currency rather than having to ask my bank. We’re seeing digital currency blossom across every continent and so several of the Draper Network funds, from Silicon Valley, Europe and Asia have come together to fund Ledger and help them expand globally.”
From Paris to Silicon Valley
Ledger was founded in 2014 by a team of eight and now employ 82 people in San Francisco, Paris and Vierzon. The company, which says it is already profitable, claims to have sold over one million cryptocurrency hardware wallets across 165 countries. They are also launching a new solution for financial institutions, the Ledger Vault, enabling banks, hedge funds and family offices to manage their crypto assets.
Eric Larchevêque, CEO at Ledger, said today: “We initially designed our Ledger hardware wallet as an enabler for the blockchain revolution. Three years later and with this Series B, we are reaching a significant milestone in our path to build a technological giant in the promising space of cryptocurrencies. These funds will be used to keep investing significantly in R&D while scaling our operations and deploying our teams globally. I am delighted to bring on board Draper Esprit and a truly global group of investors who will support the company as it grows rapidly.”
The Ledger executive board is now composed of Simon Cook at Draper Esprit, Fleur Pellerin at Korelya Capital, Cyril Bertrand at Xange as well as Nicolas Bacca, Pascal Gauthier, and Eric Larchevêque, respectively CTO, President and CEO at Ledger. Matt Turck at FirstMark Capital and Ming-Po Cai at Cathay Innovation are also joining as board observers.
Matt Turck, Managing Director at FirstMark Capital, commented: “While the price of individual digital currencies and tokens may be subject to volatility, the general crypto and blockchain space has emerged as a fundamental new paradigm that will only continue to increase in importance. Considering the massive amounts of money flowing into the ecosystem, there is no more pressing need at this stage than a bullet-proof security infrastructure.”
Will this news help reduce the current shortage in hardware wallets? Tell us what you think in the comments section below.
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