News 
Coin Information 
About us 
South Korean electronics giant Samsung has invested 2.6 million euros (approximately $2.9 million) into French crypto hardware wallet maker Ledger, CoinDesk reported referring to a report from Capital.
The startup raised $75 million in a series B round led by Draper Espirit, which followed a $7 million series A round announced March 2017. The investment from Samsung brings Ledger’s valuation to around $290 million.
The report comes amid changes to Ledger’s leadership. In an online post dated April 24, the company said that Pascal Gauthier, seed investor and board member who joined Ledger as president, has been appointed as the new CEO. Eric Larchevêque, who has been serving as the CEO since July 2014, will now serve as Executive Chairman of the Board.
“With the ever growing challenge of managing such a complex company with different business units and 180 collaborators on five sites, I have come to the realization that I was spending my time on day-to-day execution at the expense of strategic critical level thinking,” Larchevêque said, adding that as Executive Chairman he will be able “properly focus on strategy and vision, while also overseeing regulator and government outreach, partnerships, customers, broader business relationships and technology thought leadership.”
In his new role, Gauthier will be in charge of executing on the strategy and delivery of Ledger’s products.
“Ledger has grown year-over-year, and it's been a privilege - and an incredible challenge - to help grow this company into what it has become. And now as CEO, and with Eric as Executive Chairman of our Board, I will focus all of my attention and energy on growing an amazing tech company on both the retail and enterprise side,” Gauthier said.
In a tweet, Larchevêque sort of confirmed the investment from Samsung, saying (via online translation), “We will always need hardware wallets, but to accompany a revolution crypto based on a personal sovereignty accessible to all, the smartphone will actually play a central role.”
Recent reports have suggested that Samsung is developing its own Ethereum-based blockchain and could move to issue its own token in the future. Earlier this week, Samsung SDS, the company’s IT arm, launched the next version of its enterprise blockchain platform ‘Nexledger.’
Comment 23