Draper Dragon Research
Investment Thesis
Draper Dragon backs founders building the next generation of AI, agent systems, and blockchain infrastructure. It partners at the earliest stages, helping teams turn frontier technologies into durable businesses. The firm positions itself as a cross-border bridge between Silicon Valley and Asia, and draws on the wider Draper network for deal flow, co-investors, and founder resources.
Firm Background
Draper Dragon was founded in 2006 by Tim Draper, Larry Li, Andy Tang, and Bobby Chao. It has offices in Silicon Valley (San Mateo), Toronto, Shanghai, and, since September 2025, Seoul. From 2006 to 2015 its early investments spanned semiconductors, AI, and enterprise software. It then built one of the earliest digital-asset-focused funds within the Draper network. The team says it has backed more than 130 companies.
Stage Focus
The firm describes itself as early stage. Public deal data shows mostly seed rounds (about 23 of 46 recorded rounds), with a meaningful number of Series A participations and a handful of later rounds in breakout names such as Ledger and Otter.ai. It also runs the BitcoinFi Accelerator (Cohort 3 announced June 2026) and the Dragon Founders Club for young founders.
Check Size
Check sizes are not published. Round sizes in its recorded deals are mostly under $5M (21 of 46), with 9 at $5M to $10M and 8 at $10M to $25M. Total round size is not the same as Draper Dragon's own check, so no check range is submitted.
Lead Tendency
Third-party data (The Venture Codex) records 7 led deals against 39 participations, roughly 15% led. Of the lead deals, most were co-led. Recent examples of leading include Midl (Aug 2025) and Imua (Feb 2025). The firm mostly follows, often alongside Draper Associates, which shares 14 recorded deals.
Recent Activity
The firm is actively deploying. Announcements on its insights page include:
- October 2026: Joined Spout Finance's strategic round (zero-interest borrowing against tokenized stocks).
- October 2026: Joined Mogul's $15.5M Series A, led by Draper Associates.
- October 2026: Joined Xverse's strategic round alongside its Orion Fund.
- July 2026: Invested in Skalor, a control layer for AI agents and agentic payments.
- June 2026: Backed BitcoinFi Accelerator Cohort 3, six Bitcoin-native companies.
- April 2026: Announced the initial phase of the $80M Orion Fund with Cardano, an equity-first ecosystem fund targeting real-world-asset tokenization, institutional DeFi, and Bitcoin-Cardano infrastructure.
- February 2026: Partnered with Lightspeed on the Pharos $10M+ RealFi incubator.
Portfolio Highlights
The portfolio page lists about 82 companies. Notable names include Coinbase, Ledger, Gemini, MoonPay, ether.fi, Galxe, Centrifuge, Oklo, Veda, Otter.ai, Splashtop, and MicroPort. Public-market or large outcomes cited by the firm include MicroPort Medical (HKSE: 0853.HK), Otter, Splashtop, and Jing Jin Electric (SHA: 688280). Crypto and blockchain is the largest sector by deal count (27 recorded deals), followed by fintech (19) and enterprise software (11).
Team
- Samiz Bayan: Partner
- Yiming Hu: Partner
- Richard Wang: Partner
- Aleeha Banerjee: Principal
- Ryo Tamura: Principal
- Tank Chen: Investor
- Norman Lai: Chief Financial Officer
- Larry Li: Founding Partner
- Andy Tang: Founding Partner
- Tim Draper: Steward
- Matt Huang, James R. Cantre, William Kwok, Edward Lee: Venture Partners
Decision Process
The firm presents a partnership of investors with a founding-partner group and venture partners. No public information describes a formal committee or decision timeline. Pitches go to [email protected].
Founder Preferences
Talented founders at the earliest stages building frontier technology. The firm values cross-border teams and offers accelerator programs (BitcoinFi Accelerator, Dragon Founders Club, Cyberport program) alongside capital. Founder-profile details beyond this are not published.
Geographic Focus
Silicon Valley and Asia are the stated corridors. Recorded deals are mostly US (31 of 46), with some in Europe, India, Hong Kong, South Korea, Japan, and Canada. The Orion Fund is dedicated to the Cardano ecosystem.
Gaps
AUM, check size, and decision timeline are not published and are left blank. Some portfolio domains were left null where the site's link order could not be matched confidently.