Ledger
Founders
Éric Larchevêque, Nicolas Bacca, Joël Pobeda, Thomas France, David Balland · Founded 2014 · HQ today: Paris, Île-de-France, France
Ledger was founded by Éric Larchevêque, Nicolas Bacca, Joël Pobeda, Thomas France, David Balland in 2014. It is now led by Pascal Gauthier.
The Mt. Gox collapse in early 2014 showed how risky it was to leave Bitcoin on exchanges or internet-connected computers. That year, a group of French founders combined three ventures: Éric Larchevêque and Thomas France's Paris Bitcoin community business (La Maison du Bitcoin), Nicolas Bacca's BTChip smartcard wallet project, and Joël Pobeda's secure hardware know-how. They applied smartcard chip technology from banking and passports to Bitcoin keys, shipping early USB devices before the 2016 Nano S became a best-seller.
Engineer and serial founder in French e-commerce and Bitcoin ventures.
Co-founder and CEO of Ledger from 2014 to 2019. A serial entrepreneur and ESIEE Paris engineer, he co-founded La Maison du Bitcoin before Ledger and led the company through the Nano S launch and the 2017 boom. (Exact birth year remains publicly undisclosed).
Smart card technology expert.
Nicolas Bacca co-founded Ledger in 2014. Utilizing his deep expertise in the highly secure 'smart card' technology used in European passports and banking chips, he architected the absolutely unbreakable secure element that became the foundation of the Ledger Nano hardware wallet. Nicolas Bacca was born in 1982.
Technology entrepreneur.
Joël Pobeda co-founded Ledger in 2014. He managed the early operations and supply chain logistics, ensuring the company could physically manufacture and ship the highly secure hardware wallets to a rapidly growing global crypto audience. (Exact birth year remains publicly undisclosed).
Bitcoin entrepreneur (La Maison du Bitcoin).
Thomas France co-founded Ledger in 2014. He previously created La Maison du Bitcoin (a physical crypto hub in Paris). Realizing that absolute security was the only way crypto would ever achieve mainstream adoption, he helped merge multiple French startups to create Ledger. (Exact birth year remains publicly undisclosed).
Technology entrepreneur.
David Balland co-founded Ledger in 2014. He played a critical role in the company's early business development and scaling, helping transform a highly niche security product for crypto nerds into a massive, globally recognized consumer electronics brand. (Exact birth year remains publicly undisclosed).
Pascal Gauthier
Chairman & CEO
Former Criteo COO who brought scaling and distribution experience; seed investor in Ledger since 2015.
Éric Larchevêque
Co-founder & CEO
An engineer from ESIEE Paris, Larchevêque's entrepreneurial leadership established the hardware wallet industry, securing billions in digital asset value.
Ledger was founded in Paris in 2014 by eight co-founders, including Éric Larchevêque, Thomas France, Joël Pobeda, Nicolas Bacca and David Balland. Pascal Gauthier, the current CEO, was an early seed investor rather than a co-founder.
La Maison du Bitcoin (later Coinhouse) was a Paris Bitcoin venture co-founded by Éric Larchevêque and Thomas France, and one of the projects that came together to form Ledger.
Nicolas Bacca was a pioneer in smart card security and Java Card operating systems who created 'BTChip' (Bitcoin Hardware Chip) in 2012, the world's first smart-card hardware wallet implementation that became the core technical foundation of Ledger's architecture.
In January 2025 David Balland was kidnapped in central France and held for ransom before police freed him. The case drew attention to physical attacks on people in the crypto industry.
In December 2014, Ledger launched the 'Ledger Nano' (first generation), a compact USB smart card token requiring a printed security keycard, which evolved into the major Ledger Nano S with an onboard OLED screen in 2016.
Launched in 2016, the Nano S added a screen and physical buttons and became Ledger's best-selling device.
Early backers included French angel investors and Pascal Gauthier as a seed investor. Ledger later raised a $75 million Series B in 2018 led by Draper Esprit (now Molten Ventures) and a $380 million Series C in 2021 led by 10T Holdings.
The founders were united by the Cypherpunk conviction that the promise of Bitcoin and blockchain could only be realized if individuals possessed simple, unhackable tools to practice true personal self-custody without trusting centralized banks.
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