Startup reality show ‘Meet the Drapers’ Season 5 begins global hunt for the unicorns of tomorrow

After four successful seasons, the startup reality show ‘Meet the Drapers’ is back for its fifth season, where entrepreneurs from across the world will pitch in front of prominent billionaire investor Tim Draper and the Draper family – Bill Draper and Polly Draper – as they begin their global search for the next billion dollar idea.

From the thousands of startups who competed to be a part of Season 5 of Meet the Drapers, 35 have been selected to pitch their ideas to a live audience in the hopes of moving to the semi-final round. They will battle it out to win a $1 million investment from Tim Draper and the Draper family, who will be joined by a special guest judge each week.

The latest season, produced and directed by Sarika Batra, will highlight four startups each week from different regions across the world, giving viewers the opportunity to root for entrepreneurs from their hometown. The startups were selected from pre-pitch events that were hosted in major regions across the globe including India, Taiwan, Portugal, Brazil, Singapore, Canada, and the United States.

"Season 5 showcases some of the brightest young entrepreneurs we've ever seen from around the globe and I hope that Meet The Drapers will continue to inspire and teach people to build and grow their own companies," said Tim Draper, founding partner of Draper Associates and host of Meet the Drapers, whose notable investments include Baidu, Hotmail, Skype, Tesla, SpaceX, Twitter, and CoinBase, among others.

The Meet the Drapers series – which has so far featured over 100 startups and enabled startups to raise more than $4 million from Tim Draper – airs weekly on Times Now and ET NOW in India, TechStorm in Pan-Asia, Record TV in Brazil, and on DraperTV in the US.

"Meet The Drapers gives viewers around the world a unique opportunity to be entertained while learning about entrepreneurship and venture capital. The entrepreneurs that pitch us are unique and extraordinary, and our show has provided them a global stage from which many of them have received funding and grown their sales," added Draper.

The latest season also features guest judges in each episode, including prominent names like investor and entrepreneur, Randi Zuckerberg, Sabeer Bhatia, founder of Hotmail, Eva De Mol, the founder of early stage Europe-based VC fund CapitalT, Scott McNealy, co-founder of Sun Microsystems and Curriki, Peter Diamandis, Founder at XPRIZE, and Andrew Tang, Partner at Draper Associates, among others.

In Season 5, viewers and the judges will listen to pitches from the 35 different startups to select the semi-finalists, who will participate in a pitch challenge where the top three will be selected by the judges to move onto the finale.

Viewers also have the chance to vote for their favorite entrepreneur on MeettheDrapers.com and the top three startups with the most votes will be featured in the finale. The winner will receive a $1 million investment from Tim Draper, which will be one of the largest single investments made on reality television, as well as access to Draper’s startup network. Second and third place startups receive a $500K and $250K investment, respectively.

Beyond the $1 million prize for the winning startup, Meet the Drapers acts as a platform that enables startups to crowdfund from viewers who believe in them. While Season 5 will not have crowdfunding, in the first three seasons of the show, over 80 startups were showcased and $10 million raised through crowdfunding.

To know more about ‘Meet the Drapers’ show, click here. Also, follow Tim Draper on Twitter for the latest updates about the billionaire venture capitalist.