Dublin-listed Draper Esprit leads €75m round for Ledger

Dublin-listed venture capital firm Draper Esprit has led a €75 million Series B funding round for Ledger, a French cryptocurrency and blockchain security company.

The round represents one of the largest traditional series B investments into blockchain and cryptocurrency-related technologies.

Ledger, which raised €8.3 million in a Series A round last year, was launched in 2014 by eight experts with backgrounds in embedded security, cryptocurrencies and entrepreneurship.

The company, which employs more than 80 people in Paris, Vierzon and San Francisco, has developed a number of products and services to safeguard cryptocurrency assets for individuals and companies. The company has partnerships with big players such as Intel and Germalto.

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More than a million of its flagship hardware wallets have been sold in 165 countries and the already profitable company is shortly to launch a new solution - the Ledger Vault - to enable financial institutions to manage their crypto assets.

Driverless cars

Ledger’s products are underpinned by a unique operating system specifically designed to run on any secure hardware and to support any cryptocurrency. The technology enables security for blockchain applications and will eventually accelerate advancement in a wide variety of industries, from the internet of things (IOT) to driverless cars, where security prevents widespread adoption.

The latest funding round was led by Draper Esprit, with additional funding from Draper Venture Network funds, including Draper Associates, Draper Dragon and Boost VC, as well as FirstMark Capital, Cathay Innovation, and Korelya Capital.

Existing investors, CapHorn Invest, GDTRE and Digital Currency Group, also participated in the round. Seed and Series A investor Xange remains at the capital.

Technological giant

“We initially designed our Ledger hardware wallet as an enabler for the blockchain revolution. Three years later and with this Series B, we are reaching a significant milestone in our path to build a technological giant in the promising space of cryptocurrencies,” said Ledger chief executive Eric Larchevêque.

“These funds will be used to keep investing significantly in R&D while scaling our operations and deploying our teams globally,” he added.

Draper Esprit, which listed in Dublin and London in 2016, is led in Ireland by Brian Caulfield. The company, which is focused on high growth technology startups, has backed a number of big name tech firms including Clavis Insight, Movidius, Push Doctor and TransferWise.

The company’s share price was up more than 11 per cent in London following news of the funding round.