- Ledger raises €100 million to produce its hardware wallet in its Series C Extension fundraising.
- The firm admits to recording huge sales despite the fall of FTX in November 2022.
- Ledger shows its support for crypto self-custody as it enlists the help of the iPhone designer to build its hardware wallet.
The recent crash of crypto exchanges and banking institutions has worried people about their assets and where they store them.
Since the unfortunate event of the FTX exchange crashing last November, storing digital assets in self-custody has been an ongoing debate that has intensified due to the fall of some central banks in the US and Europe.
In its bid to provide a hardware wallet for the demands of all crypto users, the crypto wallet provider—Ledger—has raised the first of the three fundraising rounds required to provide hardware wallets for those looking to have self-custody of their crypto assets.
According to a Bloomberg report on March 30, Ledger was able to raise €100 million ($109 million) in the first round of its “Series C Extension fundraising,” placing the company’s value at $1.4 billion (€1.3 billion) which is close to the amount investors gave it at its previous funding in 2021.
According to the report, there are to be three funding rounds for the production of the hardware wallets, and this is the first round, with its second closing scheduled to come up in April. Given the high investor interest, it is the third at a much later date.
In its blog post, also published on March 30, Ledger’s CEO, Pascal Gauthier, shared the vision and goals of the company with its users, along with the reason behind creating Ledger Stax—its hardware wallet, which is yet to be released for sale.
Pascal Gauthier mentioned that the hardware wallet was designed by Tony Fadell, a designer, and co-inventor of the iPhone and iPod. Pascal claimed that Ledger Stax had “unparalleled security” as it was built by the Donjon team.
“As the Internet of Value gradually becomes popular, our Ledger gadgets will enable you to manage an ever-growing variety of tokenized assets, including your value, stocks, identity, data, and many more, enabling you to connect with total ownership,” he said.
In an interview with a media outlet, Pascal commented on the recent failures and crashes of crypto firms and banking institutions. He stated that these incidents were the cause of the awareness of crypto self-custody.
The Series C Extension round is expected to bring capital as it will expand the firm’s distribution network, build new products, and increase production.
Among the Paris-based crypto wallet provider’s previous investors are Cap Horn, Morgan Creek, Draper Dragon, and many others. In contrast, its latest investors are Digital Finance Group, Cité Gestion SPV, VaynerFund, and True Global Ventures.
Conclusion
Although the crypto wallet provider recorded huge sales during FTX’s crash in 2022, the company has reinstated its support for crypto self-custody. Its CEO confirmed that when there is a crisis in the crypto industry, crypto users are likely to purchase Ledger’s products, hence, the launching of its hardware wallet.
