Crypto Hardware wallets company, Ledger, has managed to raise 100 million euros, about $108 million, in an extension of its Series C funding round.

According to Bloomberg reports, the company reached this first close, valuing it at €1.3 billion, which is similar to the amount investors provided in its last funding round in June 2021. The Paris-based crypto wallet firm aims for its second closing around mid-April and anticipates a third as investor interest in the company has grown.

Ledger plans to use this capital to increase output, develop new products, and expand the company’s distribution system.

The company has signed on several new venture investors once more. True Global Ventures, Digital Finance Group, Cité Gestion SPV, and VaynerFund are now part of the business. Some past investors, like 10T, Cité Gestion Private Bank, Cap Horn, Morgan Creek, Cathay Innovation, Korelya Capital, and Molten Ventures, have also invested in Ledger again.

Bloomberg stated that the startup was benefiting from” turmoil elsewhere in the industry” while referring to the recent failure of cryptocurrency exchanges and banks which according to Ledger’s CEO, Pascal Gauthier, had increased public awareness of cryptocurrency self-custody which is driving traffic to the startup’s business.

“Whenever the market gets stressed and whenever people fear for their savings, you know, they rush to crypto and to Ledger,” said Gauthier.

Ledger’s hardware wallet

Ledger’s primary product is a hardware cryptocurrency wallet which the startup says offers a high level of security. The wallet device resembles a USB key and has a tiny screen through which a user can confirm transactions.

The hardware wallets can be regarded as secure because the secret key of the crypto wallet is kept inside a certified secure chip. A user needs a device such as a computer or a smartphone to send tokens after which they must verify the transaction with the private key after entering the recipient’s public address in the Ledger Live app. For this reason, the user would need to turn on their Ledger wallet to validate the transaction.

Following the abrupt collapse of the FTX crypto exchange, Ledger allegedly experienced its best sales month in November. The business claims that revenue from the cryptocurrency buy-and-sell app, Ledger Live, has increased by 200% over the last year.

Since its launch in 2014, Ledger has distributed 6 million units. Out of these, a million devices were sold by the business between June 2022 and February 2023.

The FTX fiasco demonstrated once more that leaving your crypto assets on a crypto exchange could result in their overnight disappearance, hence Ledger is set for more sales as more events unfold in the crypto industry.

A device for trading crypto assets

In a post to announce the extension of their Series C funding round, the CEO of Ledger, spoke on the importance of hardware wallets saying:

As we enter this new era, the smartphone in your pocket and the laptop on your desk lack fundamental security properties. 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.

Gauthier predicts that we are approaching a time when it will be essential to use devices made specifically for holding and trading assets on a decentralized internet.

To this end, the company unveiled Ledger Stax which in addition to signing transactions, will also be used to manage NFT collections. This device is being designed in collaboration with Tony Fadell, the co-inventor & designer of the iPod & iPhone, and will spot a large E Ink display similar to that of a Kindle.

A booming business fueled by chaos

Hardware crypto solutions have seen an increase in business and sales since the industry fell into chaos during the FTX collapse. An analysis conducted by Cryptoslate showed that over 450,000 Bitcoin (BTC) which were previously held on an exchange or a hot wallet before 2022 were moved to a cold storage device throughout the last year.

This denoted that less than 12% of the BTC supply was held in wallets connected to exchanges. As such, several companies have hopped on the trend to offer hardware wallet options to crypto users.

Binance Labs, the branch of Binance that handles investments, led a series A investment round in hardware wallet manufacturer NGRAVE in November 2022, marking the company’s entry into the market. Additionally, 1inch (1INCH), a decentralized crypto exchange, also stated in January 2023 that its multi-coin hardware wallet would be released later that year.

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