Paris-based cryptocurrency wallet manufacturer Ledger SAS announced today the company has raised $75 million in a Series B venture round led by Draper Esprit.

The company plans to use the money to scale up its operations in producing hardware wallets for cryptocurrencies and provide security for distributed ledgers.

Ledger produces a hardware cryptocurrency wallet known as the Ledger Nano S. It can safely store cryptocurrencies including bitcoin, litecoin, Ethereum and a large number of other coins in protected storage. The device connects to a computer or smartphone via a Universal Serial Bus cable and prevents access to the stored coins with a secret code and encryption.

The company also sells a Bluetooth-enabled personal security device called the Ledger Blue. The Blue is a color touchscreen device resembling a small tablet computer that is used to manage transactions and smart contracts securely. It runs on the Blockchain Open Ledger operating system, developed by Ledger.

“We initially designed our Ledger hardware wallet as an enabler for the blockchain revolution,” said Eric Larchevêque, chief executive at Ledger. “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.”

At $75 million this funding round is among the largest into a cryptocurrency and blockchain business over the past year. During 2017, online cryptocurrency wallet and exchange Coinbase Inc. raised $108 million followed by R3CEV LLC at $106 million.

According to a blockchain technology market report from CB Insights, 2017 saw 188 equity deals raising worth approximately $830 million, up 52 percent from 2016.

“Blockchain, as evidenced by crypto assets, is a truly revolutionary technology,” said Simon Cook, chief executive at Draper Esprit. “Security will be paramount to its success and we believe that Ledger has built the world’s best security platform to manage private keys for all blockchain and crypto asset applications.”

Because of their digital nature, without security and protection, cryptocurrency wallets can be easily pillaged by hackers. Unencrypted wallets stored on computers or phones can be easily discovered and emptied by malware leading to significant losses for currency holders.

Last year alone, numerous hacks of different cryptocurrency and blockchain-based exchanges led to losses. For example, in July three different companies had their Ethereum wallets drained of about 150,000 ETH or approximately $31 million at the time. During the month of December, EtherDelta suffered a hack that led to the theft of 308 ETH, or $228,000 at the time, and bitcoin mining marketplace NiceHash lost almost $68 million in bitcoin.

These losses are only a small number from last year and follow a trend of spotty security across the blockchain startup industry as cryptocurrencies have risen in popularity since the launch of bitcoin in 2009.

Since launch, Ledger has sold more than a million cryptocurrency hardware wallets across 165 countries. The company has also developed a solution for financial institutions called Ledger Vault, which will be released soon, that will enable banks, hedge funds and family offices to manage crypto assets securely.

With the addition of $75 million, Ledger has raised a total of $85 million to date.

This venture 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.

Image: Ledger