Ryder, the Singapore-based web3 startup behind the Ryder One hardware wallet, has raised $3.2 million in seed funding led by Draper Associates founder and longtime crypto investor Tim Draper. The round also drew participation from Borderless, Semantic, Smape, and VeryEarly, alongside angels including Solana co-founder Anatoly Yakovenko and Asymmetric CEO Joe McCann.

Ryder said the fresh capital will be used to ramp up production, expand marketing and engineering, and accelerate development of Ryder One, which the company pitches as a hardware wallet that can be set up in “60 seconds or less.” The company is planning a broader marketing push to build brand awareness as it brings the device to more users.

Co-founder and CEO Louise Ivan Payawal said Ryder was born from the team’s own experience with the fragility of traditional seed-phrase recovery. “For too long, crypto has relied on seed phrases – a single piece of paper that could decide the fate of your entire wallet,” Payawal said. Co-founder and CTO Marvin Janssen added that the goal is to make crypto “as easy as tapping your phone” by simplifying the overall experience and rethinking recovery.

Draper said he backed Ryder because the industry needs consumer-grade security without technical hurdles. He pointed to Ryder One’s minute-or-under setup and offline design as differentiators aimed at mainstream users. McCann likewise argued that reducing interface complexity improves security outcomes, highlighting Ryder’s removal of the seed phrase as a single point of failure.

At the heart of the product is TapSafe, Ryder’s recovery approach that splits encrypted backups between a user’s phone and coin-sized NFC Recovery Tags. To regain access, the pieces must be brought together physically, creating a redundant, self-custodial scheme that seeks to avoid the risks of a lone recovery phrase. Ryder says customers can create and back up wallets within a minute using this flow. The device features a secure enclave and supports both TapSafe and (optionally) traditional seed-phrase recovery for users who want it.

Ryder positions the wallet for everyday use, pairing the hardware with a companion app that enables tap-to-pay and other real-world transactions. The team says it is building toward a future where people can pay and recover directly from the device without wrangling with complex seed storage.

The hardware wallet market remains competitive, with established brands such as Ledger, Trezor, Tangem, OneKey, and others vying to balance usability with security. Ryder’s bet is that a tap-first interface and physical-quorum recovery will appeal to new entrants and experienced users alike who are wary of seed-phrase loss or phishing.

Ryder’s leadership includes Payawal and Janssen, both active in the crypto space. The company has been public about its long development cycle and consumer-oriented design philosophy as it moves to scale manufacturing following the seed raise.

Image: The Ryder team