Billionaire Tim Draper: IPO really 'not worth it'

Editor's Note: This article comes fromCointelegraph Chinese (ID: CointelegraphChina), Author: HELEN PARTZ, reprinted with authorization by Odaily.

Editor's Note: This article comes from

Cointelegraph Chinese (ID: CointelegraphChina)

, Author: HELEN PARTZ, reprinted with authorization by Odaily.

Tim Draper, a well-known American venture capitalist and cryptocurrency investor, believes that initial public offerings (IPOs) are not the best source of financing for companies in the industry.

The billionaire investor attended the Unitize conference on July 6 to talk about investing in early-stage blockchain startups.

secondary title

During a panel discussion at the Unitize conference, Draper emphasized that existing regulations make it difficult for blockchain companies to go public. "Unless you have a company worth at least $10 billion, I wouldn't recommend going public right now," Draper said.

Draper went on to say that it makes more sense for blockchain entrepreneurs to seek investment from large funds or smaller investments using other forms of financing, such as tokenization. Draper elaborates:

“Regulators have made going public so expensive that it’s not really worth it. The biggest investments come from those big funds, and that’s often easier to get money than trying to go public.”

According to Draper, the IPO process used to be much cheaper. They only go public when the company has a market capitalization of "$50 million or more" and "only $20 million in revenue." But today, Draper declares, "it's worth nothing until the company is worth $5 billion."

secondary title

investment diversification

During the panel, Draper also supported diverse funding for early-stage industry startups. Draper, who runs an early-stage venture capital firm Draper Associates and Draper Fisher Jurvetson, claims that factors such as country of origin, history, race or gender have no bearing on choosing what startups to invest in.

He said: