Crypto wallet company Ledger raises another $108 million

french startup register added more money to its Series C funding round. The company designs and manufactures so-called hardware wallets to secure crypto assets. In 2021, the company raised €356 million ($385 million at today’s exchange rate). And the company is adding another 100 million euros ($108 million) in new funding.

This is an extension cycle as the company’s valuation does not change – 1.3 billion euros ($1.41 billion at today’s exchange rate). In the current funding environment, rising at the same valuation is already quite impressive.

Once again, the company managed to field a long list of investors. The company’s new investors include True Global Ventures, Digital Finance Group and VaynerFund. Some existing investors are also reinvesting in Ledger, such as 10T, Cité Gestion Private Bank, Cap Horn, Morgan Creek, Cathay Innovation, Korelya Capital and Molten Ventures.

Ledger’s main products are hardware crypto wallets that provide a high level of security. The company’s current devices are shaped like USB drives and have a small screen to confirm transactions on the device.

Hardware wallets are secure by design because the crypto wallet’s private key never leaves the device – it is stored in a certified secure chip. When you want to send crypto tokens, you need to use another device like a computer or a smartphone. When you enter the recipient’s public address in the Ledger Live app, you must validate the transaction with the private key. This is why you need to activate your Ledger wallet and confirm the transaction.

When you first start your Ledger device, the company asks you to write a 24-word recovery phrase on a piece of paper. You should then store this recovery phrase in a safe place as it allows you (or someone else) to recover your wallet in case you lose your Ledger wallet.

And it’s true that having a secure wallet does not prevent scams. In July 2020, Ledger discovered a data breach of personal information stored in an e-commerce and marketing database. This has led to phishing campaigns with scammers trying to obtain recovery phrases.

To be fair, other wallets have been targeted by similar phishing campaigns. For example, MetaMask users should never share their wallet seed phrase for the same reason. Some companies are moving away from this single point of failure by switching to other recovery methods, such as Argent and ZenGo.

Ledger’s flagship product is the Nano S Plus Register. This is the most recent version of the Ledger Nano S. It has a small black and white screen, two buttons and a USB-C port to plug the device into your computer and turn it on. It costs $79.

Ledger also sells the Nano X Register. It looks a lot like the Ledger Nano S Plus, but it has a built-in battery and a Bluetooth chip. In this way, users can connect a Ledger Nano X to a smartphone via Bluetooth.

More recently, the company unveiled the Ledger Stax. Designed in partnership with Tony Fadell, this premium wallet costs $279 and features a large E Ink screen similar to a Kindle screen. Just like other Ledger wallets, you can use it to sign transactions. But users will also be able to manage NFT collections.

The display wraps around the body of the device, meaning the wallet name remains visible even when stacking Ledger wallets – crypto millionaires often have multiple Ledger devices to separate assets across multiple wallets.

As it is an E Ink screen, the name of the wallet remains visible even when the device is turned off or the battery is empty. The company plans to ship the first Ledger Stax devices to its customers at some point in the next two months.

Ledger has sold 6 million devices since its inception in 2014. And that trend isn’t slowing down as the FTX debacle once again showed that your crypto assets could disappear overnight if you leave them on a crypto exchange. The company sold 1 million devices between June 2022 and February 2023.

In addition to this hardware business which works very well, the company offers enterprise solutions to secure crypto assets with governance and cash management features. The enterprise platform also offers some DeFi and NFT management features.

Ledger also generates revenue from Ledger Live. The company offers staking and integration opportunities with third-party products. But the company’s main products remain its hardware wallets, as Ledger estimates that it secures 20% of cryptocurrencies and 30% of NFTs globally.