French hardware wallet manufacturer, Ledger, has secured an additional €100 million ($108 million) in funding for its Series C round, bringing the total raised in 2021 to €356 million ($385 million).
The funding will not change the company’s valuation of €1.3 billion ($1.41 billion). Investors in the round include new backers True Global Ventures, Digital Finance Group, and VaynerFund, as well as returning investors 10T, Cité Gestion Private Bank, Cap Horn, Morgan Creek, Cathay Innovation, Korelya Capital, and Molten Ventures.
Ledger produces hardware wallets to secure crypto assets, offering a high level of security as the private key of the wallet is stored on the device, never leaving it. The wallets, which have sold over 6 million units since the company’s inception in 2014, require users to confirm transactions with their private key on a separate device, such as a computer or smartphone. The company’s most recent device, the Ledger Nano S Plus, costs $79, while the Ledger Nano X, which has a built-in battery and Bluetooth connectivity, sells for $119.
In addition to its hardware business, Ledger offers enterprise solutions for crypto asset governance and treasury management, as well as some DeFi and NFT management features. The company generates revenue from Ledger Live, its staking and third-party integration platform, but estimates that its hardware wallets secure 20% of cryptocurrencies and 30% of NFTs worldwide.
Ledger’s latest product, the Ledger Stax, designed in partnership with Tony Fadell, features a large E Ink display similar to that of a Kindle and costs $279. The device allows users to sign transactions and manage NFT collections, and its display wraps around the body of the wallet, ensuring the name of the wallet remains visible even if multiple devices are stacked on top of each other. The company expects to begin shipping the Ledger Stax in the next two months.
However, the security of Ledger’s wallets was breached in July 2020, leading to a data breach of personal information stored in the company’s e-commerce and marketing database. While Ledger recommends users keep a 24-word recovery phrase in a safe place to recover their wallet in case of loss, some companies, such as Argent and ZenGo, have switched to other recovery methods to avoid this single point of failure.
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