The name "Draper" is synonymous with Venture Capital. There are now four generations of Draper VCs.
General William H. Draper was the first Silicon Valley venture capitalist in 1957, William Draper was a great pioneer in venture capital with Sutter Hill Ventures, Tim Draper started Draper Associates in 1985, and three of Tim's children - Jesse, Adam, and Billy - started Halogen Ventures, Boost VC, and Path Ventures.
Draper Associates has become a leader in early-stage venture capital having funded companies including Hotmail, Skype, Baidu, Tesla, SpaceX, Twitch, Cruise, Carta, Webflow, Robinhood, and Coinbase. Draper Associates continues to innovate in providing capital to technology companies of all sizes and all geographies.
The firm is well known for being entrepreneur friendly, and supporting entrepreneurs through thick and thin, and for the long haul.
The Draper Ecosystem includes popular television show Meet the Drapers, entrepreneur education platform Draper University, global network of hostels Draper Startup House, platform for freedom and trust Draper Hero Institute, and the global Draper Venture Network.
The Draper Associates team is based in Silicon Valley and invests in companies around the world.
Tim Draper founds Draper Associates. Tim borrowed $6M from the US Small Business Administration’s SBIC program to invest in private companies, five of which went on to IPO.
John Fisher joined Draper Associates in 1991 after he and Tim Draper were colleagues at Alex Brown. Draper Fisher Associates was launched in 1992. Steve Jurvetson would later join as an investor. The firm came to be known as Draper Fisher Jurvetson (DFJ). The team would go on to invest in category defining companies such as Tesla, SpaceX, Skype, Baidu, and many others.
The DFJ ePlanet fund was raised in 1999. This was the first global VC fund raised by a Silicon Valley firm. DFJ ePlanet would deliver big wins such as Baidu and Skype.
DFJ and Draper Associates invested in Baidu, the Chinese internet giant founded by Robin Li.
Tim Draper and DFJ invested in Skype, a startup that emerged from Estonia and changed the way we communicate. Skype was later acquired by Microsoft.
Tim Draper relaunched the original Draper Associates to make angel investments in technology startups. Tim Draper, Andy Tang, and Billy Draper invested in companies such as Cruise Automation (acq. by GM), Thumbtack, Robinhood, Carta, Docusign, and many others.
Draper Associates Fund V is a $190M early stage fund that backs technology startups.
