Draper Esprit et al. in $75m round for Ledger

The round also saw participation from funds from the Draper Venture Network, FirstMark Capital, Cathay Innovation, Korelya Capital and existing investors.

It has been earmarked to fund the company's attempt to scale up its operations as demand for its products increases alongside greater interest for blockchain and cryptocurrencies.

The series-B is a massive step-up from the €7m series-A secured by the French business less than a year ago. The round was led by Maif Avenir and featured a total of 10 investors contributing to Ledger's second round of funding, bringing the total raised by the startup to €8.5m.

XAnge Private Equity and Kima Ventures were among the backers of the early-2017 round, along with Wicklow Capital, GDTRE, Libertus Capital, Digital Currency Group, The Whittemore Collection, BHB Network and Nicolas Pinto. XAnge remains an investor but seemingly did not reinvest as part of the series-B. However, previous backers CapHorn Invest, GDTRE and Digital Currency Group did re-up.

Draper Esprit claims that the round is one of the largest traditional series-B investments in blockchain- and cryptocurrency-related technologies to date (excluding ICOs).

Draper Esprit CEO Simon Cook noted that security would be paramount to the ongoing success of blockchain, hence the firm's interest in Ledger. Meanwhile, FirstMark managing director Matt Turck said that unlike the price of individual digital currencies and tokens, which are subject to volatility, the general cryptocurrency and blockchain space has emerged as a "fundamental new paradigm".

The company's executive board is now composed of Simon Cook from Draper Esprit, Fleur Pellerin from Korelya Capital, Cyril Bertrand from XAnge and team members Nicolas Bacca, Pascal Gauthier and Eric Larchevêque. FirstMark's Matt Turck and Cathay's Ming-Po Cai have also joined as board observers.

Company
Headquartered in Paris and with an office in San Francisco, Ledger is a cryptocurrency and blockchain security hardware provider. The company produces hardware wallets for securing cryptocurrencies and digital identities.

Founded in 2014, the company is now profitable and employs 82 people.

People
Draper Esprit – Simon Cook (CEO).
FirstMark Capital – Matt Turck (managing director).

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