Draper Associates is a San Mateo-based early-stage venture firm founded by Tim Draper in 1985, one of the longest-running venture franchises in Silicon Valley history. The firm spun out of DFJ in 2014 and relaunched as Draper Associates with outside investors, maintaining an unwavering strategy across 41 years: find the iconoclastic founder looking at a broken industry and back them before anyone else believes in what they are building. With $2B in AUM and 60+ unicorns across its history, the firm has invested in more than 320 companies across AI, blockchain, biotech, aerospace, and frontier technology.
Draper backs early-stage founders in five primary sectors: AI, robotics and automation; crypto and blockchain; healthcare and biotech (including longevity and regenerative medicine); aerospace and space; and deep tech spanning energy, materials, and frontier science.
The firm is industry-agnostic at the stage level, pre-seed through Series A, and explicitly seeks founders building things the rest of the market considers impossible, unrealistic, or too early.
Draper Associates Fund VIII (DA8) launched at $300M in June 2026, the firm's eighth flagship fund and its 12th year investing with outside LPs following the DFJ spinout.
The fund brings new LPs alongside returning investors and continues Draper's strategy of backing early-stage companies led by technically serious founders taking on industries that have not been disrupted in 20+ years. LP composition is not publicly disclosed.
Leadership
Tim Draper is Founder and Managing Partner, with 41 years of venture investing experience. He is known for early positions in Tesla, SpaceX, Hotmail, Skype, Baidu, Bitcoin, Coinbase, Robinhood, Twitch, and Oklo.
Andy Tang is Partner with 20+ years of investing experience, known for backing unconventional theses including artificial wombs, AI-generated companies, and single-patient cancer therapies.
Maxime Bucaille is a Partner specializing in blockchain and crypto.
James Walker is a Principal and former attorney at Latham & Watkins.
Michelle Kwok leads healthcare and biotech investments.
Rose Yip, Megan K., Tyrone Lee, Vicky Kuang, Addie Bonifas, and Tatiana Chau round out the investment team.
Investment Strategy
Draper invests from pre-seed through Series A, writing conviction-driven checks without stage constraints.
The firm's sourcing philosophy centers on backing founders who sound crazy to most investors but whose vision becomes obvious in retrospect, a pattern that has repeated across Tesla, SpaceX, Bitcoin, and Coinbase.
Draper targets founders building solutions to humanity-scale problems with a 10+ year time horizon, and is comfortable holding through long development cycles that most institutional investors cannot support.
Notable Investments
Notable Exits
Tim Draper — Founder & Managing Partner
Andy Tang — Partner
andy@draper.vc
Maxime Bucaille — Partner
maxime@draper.vc
James Walker — Principal
james@draper.vc
Saniya Maini - Venture Associate
saniya@draper.vc
United States
