American venture capitalist Tim Draper has invested $3.5 million in Tribe Theory, an international entrepreneur-focused hostel chain in Singapore, according to a statement on Tuesday.
As part of the strategic investment, the existing hostels of Tribe Theory will be rebranded as Draper Startup House and form the international division of the business.
Katie Russel, head of business development and marketing at Draper University – an entrepreneurship programme created by Tim Draper as part of his business ecosystem – and Daniel Wiegand, who manages Draper University’s Entrepreneur Immersion Program, jointly founded the parent company, Draper Startup House, in the United States.
Draper Startup House will operate the U.S. business activities and oversee its minority stake in the international partnership. These two operations are expected to collaborate to expand hostel locations globally with a goal to support and enable one million entrepreneurs by 2030, according to the statement.
Besides Draper Startup House and Draper University, Tim also established Draper Venture Network, a self-governed organization of independent venture funds, and Silicon Valley venture capital companies Draper Associates, and Draper Fisher Jurvetson. He is an early investor in over 30 unicorns, including webmail service Hotmail, internet phone service Skype, Elon Musk’s Tesla and SpaceX, as well as Chinese search engine giant Baidu.
“Tim and his team immediately understood our vision and made an offer to invest in us and work with us to build out this concept globally under the brand Draper Startup House. This was the differentiator we were seeking,” said Tribe Theory founder Vikram Baharati in the statement.
“This rebrand will put us on the course of building what we had set out to – hospitality as the foundation of an entrepreneurship ecosystem. It will propel our mission much further because we are now part of a larger ecosystem,” said Baharati.
Established in 2018, Tribe Theory has eight international locations, including Bali, Singapore, Yangon, Estonia, Manila, Lisbon, and two locations in Bangalore. The first location in the U.S. will open in March 2020 in Austin, TX at SXSW, with additional locations following the investment.
Draper Startup House provides entrepreneurs with short and long-term accommodations, co-working space, custom programming focused on entrepreneurship, access to venture capital funding, and the ability to submit pitch decks to the Draper Venture Network, which has 23 global funds.
