Draper Dragon Fund
Draper Dragon (formerly known as DFJ DragonFund) is a venture capital fund founded in 2006 by Draper Fisher Jurvetson (DFJ) and DragonVenture. These two companies have vast experience investing in various projects in the early stages since 1985.
Contents
Review
Draper Fisher Jurvetson (DFJ) has become very popular in China due to its ambitious vision that has brought them significant returns to investors. As indicated on the official website, that of the 27 investments they made, all came out worth more than $ 1 billion each. And DragonVenture has a unique investment approach to each project for which it undertakes. Together, they had the goal of creating a fund that would include all their best qualities to achieve even greater results for their investors. The DFJ DragonFund fund managed to scale during this time and created 2 DFJ DragonFund I funds (capitalization of $ 105 million) and DFJ DragonFund II funds (cap. 28 million), which are registered as investment advisory firms with discretionary assets. Since the company’s plan was developing successfully, in 2016, they decided to create the DFJ DragonFund III (cap. $ 12 million) and shortly afterward the DFJ DragonFund became known as Draper Dragon.
Portfolio
Since the project team focuses on the Chinese market, their portfolio is slightly different from the investments of other funds (#HASHED, Signum Capital, Kosmos Capital, Pantera Capital). Draper Dragon includes in its portfolio projects related to:
- health (Vital Therapies, Novelbeam Technology, EDDA Technology, and others);
- energy (Luxul, GridNT);
- intelligent equipment (Senodia, Nanos IC);
- household appliances (Splashtop, PPTV);
- blockchain projects (QuarkChain, Carry Protocol, Vechain and others).
This fund also invested in Telegram, and judging by the rapid popularity of this project; the investment was successful. Draper Dragon is looking for companies with innovative technology and market appeal in Silicon Valley and China. In most cases, they invest in projects in the early stages, as they have extensive experience in this industry. The fund also draws attention to the team that is behind the project, believing that such people should be ambitious, courageous, and believe in what they are doing.
Partnership
In October 2017, the DraperDragon Innovation Fund and the Metaverse Foundation officially announced their partnership. Metaverse is a decentralized open platform for digital assets, identifiers, and smart contracts based on blockchain technology. Through this collaboration, a digital investment fund will be created that will include some other approaches to investing, the details of which are still hidden. Also, the partners of this fund include people who have vast experience in investing, marketing, creating, and developing a business:
- Oliver Li – is a partner of Draper Dragon. Oliver has a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering and a master’s degree in business administration. He has more than a decade of venture capital investment experience in projects that cover software, mobile Internet sectors, innovative games, and more. For example, Jiaoda Withub (HK 8205), Actions Semiconductor (Nasdaq ACTS) and others.
- Richard Wang – joined the DFJ Dragon Fund in 2011. Wang has over 18 years of experience in business development, technical marketing, and high-tech sales management. Prior to the DFJ Dragon Fund, Richard worked as QunZhong’s CEO of e-commerce, where he successfully opened a new sales channel via computer and mobile Internet. Prior to e-commerce, QunZhong also founded OLEA Network with partners from Silicon Valley. Richard is an experienced technician who is well versed in the development and application of wireless systems products.
- Leon Li is one of the first medical investors in China. He has over 20 years of experience in healthcare and investment management. In 2005, he was responsible for planning and developing the Guobin Health Examination Chain Group’s strategy, which was responsible for health screening. He has been responsible for and participated in many successful investment affairs, including at Ruimei Medical Center, at Jimin Hospital related to cancer and others.
- Tim Draper – founder and CEO of Draper Fisher Jurvetson (DFJ). He created his first concept of “electronic marketing” for Internet products using e-mail, which has been successfully used in many other companies. Tim founded the Draper Joint Fund Network, an international venture capital fund network with offices in 30 cities around the world. Draper ranks 52nd among the most influential graduates in Harvard history and ranks seventh on the Forbes list of top venture capitalists.