Cryptocurrency wallet manufacturer Ledger has announced its Series C extension fundraising round.
The firm offers hardware wallets that store crypto users’ private keys in a secure device, isolating the keys from a computer or smartphone that could be hacked, according to the company’s website.
With the new funding, Ledger will bring these devices to more of the hundreds of millions of users of digital assets and blockchain-enabled technology, Ledger Chairman and CEO Pascal Gauthier said in a message on the company’s website.
“As you know, 2022 was a trying year for the crypto industry, including the collapse of significant crypto exchanges and shifting macroeconomic conditions,” Gauthier said in the post. “In this tough environment, Ledger has consistently shown strong resilience and growing adoption for the hardware and services parts of our business.”
Bloomberg reported Thursday that Ledger has raised most of its 100-million-euro (about $109 million) funding round during its first closing, with a second closing to happen in April and a third expected after that.
The latest fundraise values Ledger at 1.3 billion euros (about $1.4 billion), which is the same as it received in June 2021 during a previous round, according to the report.
Ledger did not immediately reply to PYMNTS’ request for comment on these figures.
In that earlier round, the firm raised $380 million and said it expected to secure 15% of all digital currency assets throughout the world.
Looking ahead, Gauthier said in the post that the “Internet of Value” will reshape how people own and manage assets and how they interact with the internet.
As an example of how Ledger will serve this market, Gauthier pointed to the company’s recently introduced Ledger Stax.
Designed by former Apple executive Tony Fadell, who helped usher in the iPod and iPhone, Ledger Stax is a departure from earlier wallets that were shaped like USB memory sticks; it is the size of a credit card and has a curved spine and an electronic-ink display.
“As we enter this new era, the smartphone in your pocket and the laptop on your desk lack fundamental security properties,” Gauthier said in the post. “These devices were built to produce and share content in a centralized Internet of Information, not to own and trade assets in a decentralized Internet of Value. My point is clear: You need a new generation of hardware to explore this next chapter.”
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