Bitcoin billionaire investor Tim Draper, known for his early bets in breakthrough tech companies like Tesla, SpaceX, Coinbase, Robinhood, Hotmail, Baidu, Skype, and many more, has backed Bengaluru-based start-up Up (formerly known as React Labs). The smart home appliances maker has raised $800,000 in a pre-seed round led by Tim Draper’s early-stage fund Draper Associates. The round also saw participation from Stanford Angels & Entrepreneurs of India (SAE India), Tarun Mehta & Swapnil Jain (Co-founders of Ather Energy), Gaurav Munjal & Roman Saini (Co-founders of Unacademy), among other prominent angel investors. Up, founded by IIT Bombay grads Mahek Mody (ex-Ather Energy) and Mohit Sharma (ex-Chaayos), is building a line of home appliances, starting with a smart cooking jar that can control chopping, stirring and other cooking functions, as well as display recipes and cooking methods on a touchscreen panel. The Made-in-India device is called DelishUp and is being piloted in 120 homes across Bengaluru. Mahek Mody, Co-Founder & CEO, Up, said in a statement, “Smart TVs and phones are only the tip of the iceberg of connected tech that will revolutionize Indian homes. We are making investments towards hardware, software, and cloud technology to deliver superpowers to Indian homes via our connected appliances.” “We are very excited to have Draper Associates and what they stand for on board. Their mission statement - ‘Taking long odds on extraordinary outcomes’ is exactly what Mohit and I are doing at Up,” he added. Tim Draper, whose net worth is estimated to be $1.2 billion by Forbes, down from $1.5 billion in 2021, has not only backed some of Silicon Valley’s biggest tech companies early on, he’s also made a fortune selling cryptocurrencies. Draper reportedly holds over 30,000 BTC, with which he wanted to pay for the Tesla cybertruck last year. Earlier in 2020, at the height of the crypto boom in India, Draper Associates led a $5 million round in homegrown crypto exchange Unocoin. Prior to that, Draper had also tweeted in March 2020, “A renaissance for India. Now crypto is legal”, referring to the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn RBI’s two-year crypto ban. Besides crypto, Draper Venture Network has also invested in the likes of Unacademy, IndiaGold, HealthifyMe, Purplle, and others. Up is one of its first hardware investments in India. “India is giving rise to more hardware startups, across sectors and industries and is great to see engineering talent and experience building innovative products and addressing new challenges Smart connected technology for homes has been overdue,” Tarun Mehta, Co-Founder & CEO, Ather Energy, said in a statement.Also Read: EVs going mainstream, fire incidents help industry mature: Ather Energy CEOAlso Read: Tesla's China-made sales hit record following Shanghai factory upgrade