The Draper Richards Kaplan Foundation
FoundationMenlo Park · Pre-Seed–Seed · 57 people tracked
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Investment thesis
DRK focuses on identifying exceptional early-stage social entrepreneurs and backing them with unrestricted, catalytic funding paired with intensive hands-on support. The foundation believes that early unrestricted investment in mission-driven leaders is the foundational building block for lasting positive social change. By helping organizations build capacity, DRK positions them to absorb larger downstream catalytic capital that amplifies their impact worldwide. Over more than two decades it has made nearly 280 investments, reporting hundreds of millions of lives impacted and billions in downstream funding catalyzed for its portfolio of impact-driven organizations.
Source: firm website, verified Aug 3, 2026.
Team · 57 people
from the firm's website & curated & public directoriesFounder mafia
2 people who came through The Draper Richards Kaplan Foundation went on to found or lead other companies.
What they invest in
from 14 of 19 portfolio companiesImpact & Social Good ×7EdTech ×5AI & Machine Learning ×4Cleantech ×2Digital Health ×2GovTech ×2Mental Health ×2PropTech ×2
HQs:India×3United States×3Ghana×1Jordan×1Netherlands×1South Africa×1
Who they back
founder profiles across 10 portfolio companiesFounding team size:solo founder×62 founders×4
Where their founders studiedfrom 12 founders with education data
Harvard University ×2
What their founders studiedfrom 13 founders with field-of-study data
Computer Science ×4Business & Management ×3Economics ×2Finance & Accounting ×2Humanities ×2Social Sciences ×2
Where their founders worked beforefrom 13 founders with career history
Echoing Green ×2Massachusetts General Hospital ×2Microsoft ×2
Investments · 19 tracked
founders shown can be your intro pathBraven is a national nonprofit that prepares college students from underserved backgrounds for strong first jobs after graduation through a semester-long career-accelerating course and ongoing support.
EdTechFuture of WorkImpact & Social GoodChicago, US
Aimée Eubanks Davis(Founder)in
Co-investorsSilicon Valley
Darsel provides a personalized learning chatbot that teaches mathematics to students in low-resource settings through simple, text-based channels like SMS, WhatsApp, and Facebook Messenger.
AI & Machine LearningEdTechAmman, JO
Abdulhamid Haidar(Founder)in
Co-investorsMulago FoundationY Combinator
Diverting Hate is an applied research nonprofit working to counter online radicalization by detecting real-time trends that lead young men toward hostility and redirecting them to healthier communities and resources.
Impact & Social GoodMental HealthSocial
Energiesprong is a network organization working to transform the building sector through net-zero energy renovations.
CleantechClimate TechConstruction TechEnergyPropTech
eWAKA develops electric mobility solutions for urban and last-mile logistics, serving businesses and riders with affordable and sustainable transportation options.
B2B MarketplacesCleantechLogistics & Supply ChainMobility & Transportation
Jimmy Tune(Founder)in
HackShield develops digital literacy and cybersecurity education programs for children, helping them safely and consciously participate in the digital world.
CybersecurityEdTechGaming
Co-investorsROM Utrecht Region
DRK portfolio organization; 2025 Audacious Project grantee.
Co-investorsMulago Foundation
Indus Action is a policy implementation organization that works to realize social protection policies designed to transform India's social fabric, focusing on enabling vulnerable citizens to access their legislated rights and social protection benefits.
GovTechImpact & Social GoodNew Delhi, IN
Tarun Cherukuri(Chief Executive Officer)in
Karya builds AI data and evaluation pipelines, providing custom data collection (transcription, translation, multimodal datasets), foundational datasets, and evaluation benchmarks tailored to India's languages and domains such as healthcare, agriculture, finance, law, and education.
AI & Machine LearningData & InfrastructureBengaluru, IN
Manu Chopra(Founder)inVivek Seshadri(Founder)in
Co-investorsMulago Foundation
Landed provides housing loan program administration and management for hospitals and colleges, enabling employers to co-invest with employees for down payment assistance while managing compliance and program operations.
FintechHR TechPropTechSan Francisco, US
Jonathan Asmis(Founder)inAlex Lofton(Founder)inJesse Vaughan(Cofounder)inVivian Wang(Founder)in
Co-investorsAAF Management Ltd.MassMutual VenturesMission and MarketUlu VenturesY CombinatorBlockchain Capital+14 more
Last Mile Health is an international NGO that strengthens community health systems in partnership with African governments to expand access to primary healthcare in remote and rural areas.
Digital HealthHealthtechImpact & Social GoodAccra, GH
Peter LuckowinRaj Panjabi(President Emeritus & Co-Founder)in
Co-investorsMulago Foundation
A nonpartisan education nonprofit that provides news literacy instruction and resources to K-12 students and teachers across all 50 U.S. states, helping students develop critical thinking skills to identify reliable information and resist misinformation.
EdTechImpact & Social GoodMedia & EntertainmentWashington, US
Alan C. Miller(Founder)in
Shamiri operates a youth mental health care model that uses trained lay and semi-professional providers to deliver brief interventions, backed by software (shamiriOS and shamiriAI) that lets governments and partners run the program themselves.
Digital HealthImpact & Social GoodMental Health
Katherine Venturo-Conerly(Cofounder)inTom Osbornin
Co-investorsMulago Foundation
Other
Tracked investments with no reachable website or further public details — typically companies that wound down, renamed, or were absorbed.
Collective EnergyDigital Public WorksFor The PeopleSmartStart
Portfolio news
latest coverage across their companiesFrequently asked questions
- How many investments has The Draper Richards Kaplan Foundation made?
- The Draper Richards Kaplan Foundation has 19 tracked investments, 1 of which have exited.
- What stage does The Draper Richards Kaplan Foundation invest at?
- The Draper Richards Kaplan Foundation invests at the Pre-Seed, Seed stages.
- What sectors does The Draper Richards Kaplan Foundation focus on?
- The Draper Richards Kaplan Foundation focuses on AgTech, Cleantech, Climate Tech, EdTech, FoodTech, Healthtech, Impact & Social Good, Sector Agnostic.
- Where is The Draper Richards Kaplan Foundation located?
- The Draper Richards Kaplan Foundation is headquartered in Menlo Park, US.
- Does The Draper Richards Kaplan Foundation lead rounds?
- The Draper Richards Kaplan Foundation typically participates in rounds rather than leading them.
- Who does The Draper Richards Kaplan Foundation co-invest with?
- The Draper Richards Kaplan Foundation most often shares deals with Mulago Foundation, Injini, ROM Utrecht Region, among 5 tracked co-investors.
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