Renowned venture capitalist bullish over White House change

California-based venture capitalist Tim Draper believes Joe Biden's election will help to restore supply chains

Tim Draper, who founded Draper Associates in 1985, recently invested in Dubai-based Global Ventures. Antonie Robertson / The National

A leading US venture capitalist welcomed the transition towards a new government in his home country, saying a thawing in US-China trade relations will help to rebuild supply chains.

“We are excited about the change … now there is an opportunity with the new president to reach out and try to reinvigorating the supply chains that were cut off because of the trade war with China,” Tim Draper, managing partner at California-based Draper VC, told a panel at FinTech Abu Dhabi on Wednesday.

“Restrictions on new immigration and trade war limited our ability to attract the best talent and entrepreneurs. We hope these things will open … we are kind of excited as we think there is going to be more immigration [in the US],” he added.

Mr Draper is best known as a co-founder of Draper Fisher Jurvetson, a venture capital firm whose investments included stakes in Twitter, Tesla, SpaceX and the cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase. He now runs Draper Associates, a company he started in 1985 to hold personal investments which now runs the Draper Associates Fund V. Among its investments is Twitch, the video streaming website popular with gamers.

“Freedom, trust and openness make countries wealthy and they will end up doing well. Both China and the US should move towards more freedom, openness and trust and we will be in a much better position,” said Mr Draper.

Joe Biden is set to become the 46th president of the US on January 20. His party's election platform was critical of the "reckless" trade war that outgoing President Donald Trump entered into with China, arguing that it cost more than 300,000 jobs and sent many farmers into bankruptcy. However, it also pledged to "take aggressive action against China or any other country that tries to undercut American manufacturing by manipulating their currencies", and said it would demand that China and other countries "cease and desist from conducting cyberespionage" or stealing intellectual property.

“We are looking at what the world would look like from the venture investment perspective when the US and China tension … whether they get worse or better. That’s the overarching macro issue we are looking at,” Shanghai-based Jenny Lee, managing partner at California-headquartered venture capital firm GGV Capital, said.

Supply chains should also be reconfigured and redesigned, she added.

“Globalisation is good for innovation … whether it’s about talent, data or capital. Globalisation allows decentralisaton that allows us to find the best fit.”