Singapore’s True Global Ventures invests over $24 million in French crypto firm Ledger

Singapore-based technology private equity firm True Global Ventures (TGV) has invested over $24 million in Ledger, the France-based digital asset platform and Web3.

This funding will enable Ledger to further its global ambitions and accelerate its operations to become a truly sought-after consumer technology brand, TGV said in a statement.

According to the statement, this Series C expansion round maintains the same valuation of 1.3 billion euros ($1.41 billion) for Ledger.

The valuation reflects investor confidence in Ledger despite macroeconomic and industry-specific headwinds.

The financing is supported by a number of existing and new investors, including True Global Ventures, 10T and Molten Ventures (formerly Draper Esprit) who are members and observers of the Supervisory Board.

FirstMark Capital from earlier rounds is also an observer of the supervisory board.

Ledger currently secures more than 20 percent of the world’s cryptocurrencies and over 30 percent of the world’s non-fungibNFTs.

In December, the company announced its newest device, the Ledger Stax, with a unique design from Ledger advisor Tony Fadell, the builder of the iPod, iPhone and co-founder of Nest.

TGV came out with the 5 Web3 Megatrends for 2023, which was very well received by the global investor community.

Within one of the Megatrends, TGV believes that the 3 decentralization winners for 2023 are: Self-custody, Bitcoin, DeFi.

Founding TGV partner Dušan Stojanović said the fund believes Ledger will play a critical role for the foreseeable future, both in self-deposit in the retail sector as well as on the corporate institutional side.

According to him, there are three reasons for its belief. First, in the past nine months, he has seen major crashes with Terra-LUNA and FTX, and in both cases there has been a “flight to secure” assets safely.

“Secondly, now with three US and one European bank closed and bailed out either by regulators or competitors, there has been a ‘flight to Bitcoin’, attracting new flows where users need a secure solution as they increase their exposure against Bitcoin,” he explained.

Third, he said this is the fourth company the firm has invested in that has become or is a global market leader, which it believes will benefit from a general bear market.

Meanwhile, Ledger Chairman and CEO Pascal Gauthier said 2022 was an unprecedented year for Ledger, culminating in the launch of Ledger Stax at Ledger Op3n in Paris.

According to the statement, Ledger’s product offerings include crypto wallet Ledger Nano X and hardware wallets Ledger Nano S Plus, secure omnichain app for digital assets Ledger Live, and enterprise-grade security solution Ledger Enterprise Solutions.

Ledger recently crossed six million unit sales, with more than 1.5 million monthly users on Ledger Live.

The company has managed to infiltrate mainstream culture through partnerships with fashion brands Fendi and Hublot, further establishing its role as a leader in Web3 through partnerships with brands such as VeeFriends and Nike’s RTFKT.

Ledger has also partnered with TGV’s portfolio company, the open metaverse platform The Sandbox.

The “School of Block” educational experience in LedgerVerse launched with over 300,000 unique visitors and 4.6 million missions completed during the Alpha Season 3 period in September 2022. It focuses on teaching users how to secure their digital assets while the process becomes fun.

This partnership has now expanded to The Sandbox offering security stack and treasury management solutions while having seamless security integration for its brand partners, powered by Ledger Enterprise to protect businesses’ digital assets.

According to the statement, this latest round of fundraising will allow Ledger to realize its ambitious expansion plans, including Ledger Stax and future hardware innovations.

Ledger recently announced that Ledger Stax demand had already exceeded supply, making it the most successful product launch in the company’s history.

Additional stock will be available for pre-order via drops later in summer 2023.

Ledger also recently announced the launch of the Ledger Extension, a secure browser connection that makes it easier to use your Ledger device with wallet-connected applications.

True Global Ventures invests a total of $38 million in Hong Kong’s Animoca Brands