Updated at 6:06 p.m. Pacific to add startups to the list, thanks to some help from Draper himself.
Silicon Valley venture-capital veteran Tim Draper has consistently been blunt about his bullishness on the Bitcoin cryptocurrency.
[aditude-amp id="flyingcarpet" targeting='{"env":"staging","page_type":"article","post_id":1610316,"post_type":"story","post_chan":"none","tags":null,"ai":false,"category":"none","all_categories":"business,","session":"C"}']“I am a big Bitcoin fan,” he told VentureBeat in an email conversation the other day.
He couldn’t say whether Draper Fisher Jurvetson, the venture firm he cofounded in 1985, has moved to back Coinbase, as some reports have indicated. But he could disclose his own holdings in other Bitcoin-related young companies.
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“I have backed 17 startups,” as he put it in the email.
Well, Mr. Draper, we couldn’t help but wonder if we knew about all 17. We were able to come up with most of them — 16 to be exact. He wouldn’t identify the 17th.
Without further ado, here are the ones we do know about:
- Mirror (formerly Vaurum), a Bitcoin escrow exchange
- Korbit, a Korean Bitcoin wallet and exchange service
- BitPagos, a Bitcoin payment service
- CoinLab, a Bitcoin business incubator
- CoinPlug, a Bitcoin wallet and payment startup
- SnapCard, a startup that lets businesses accept Bitcoins
- Gliph, a startup with a messaging app that lets you send Bitcoins
- Volabit (formerly Coincove), a Mexican Bitcoin exchange
- Hedgy, a startup with contracts for cutting down on the volatility of Bitcoin value
- CoinHako, a startup that lets people buy Bitcoin with Singapore dollars
- Block Cypher, a startup with tools for increasing trading speeds
- OKCoin, a Chinese Bitcoin exchange
- Atlas, a Bitcoin debit card
- Paytagz, an ecommerce startup focusing on mobile photos
- Pagatech, a Nigerian mobile-payment startup
- Alydian, a now-bankrupt Bitcoin mining operation
If you, loyal VentureBeat reader, happen to know Draper’s missing Bitcoin startup, please do email our tips line (tips@venturebeat.com).
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