Billionaire Tim Draper gets crazy offers for African island | Latest Tech News
A bitcoin billionaire is making an attempt to offload his non-public African island and says he’s been deluged with “hilarious” offers — even though he doesn’t technically own the land.
“There is overwhelming interest,” tech titan Tim Draper told The Post completely. “I have gotten offers to swap for gold mines, houses, for cows, and for $1 with a promise to pay the rest — when he could.”
Draper’s plans to promote his Lupita Island property in Tanzania have been the subject of social media intrigue ever since he announced the sale on X on Aug. 28.
Tim Draper, founder of Draper Associates, speaks during the Web Summit Rio 2023 at the RioCentro Expo Center in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on Wednesday, May 3, 2023. AFP via Getty Images
“I am selling my island in Lake Tanganyika,” he wrote. “Gorgeous place, but we don’t use it enough. $7.9 million or best offer.”
Things grew more fascinating when, days later, Tanzania’s Ministry of Lands launched a assertion saying that Lupita Island was technically owned by the Tanzania Investment and Special Economic Zones Authority (TISEZA) — and not Draper’s to promote.
According to the federal government, Firelight Safaris Ltd., a company in which Draper is a shareholder, holds a “Derivative Right” to develop and operate the resort he constructed on the island.
Draper conceded that’s the case. According to the ministry, his investment could also be transferred to another investor under Tanzanian law, but the land stays government-owned.
“The sale is of all the tenant improvements,” Draper told The Post. “The buildings and villas are on a Tanzanian government land lease.”
That setup is common in Tanzania, where all land is public and international traders usually operate through authorities leases or by-product rights. Similar preparations are typical in other island-tourism markets, such as the Maldives.
TISEZA says the rights can run for up to 99 years and could also be renewed.
Lupita sits in Tanzanian waters in the nation’s western Rukwa Region and can only be accessed via boat. The 110-acre island — about 0.17 sq. miles — lies in Lake Tanganyika, a 12,700-square-mile physique of water shared by Tanzania, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Burundi and Zambia. Stretching roughly 418 miles, it’s the world’s second-deepest lake, plunging to about 4,820 toes.
Lake Tanganyika is the world’s second-deepest lake, plunging to about 4,820 toes. Jakub – stock.adobe.com
Per the resort web site, Draper’s property contains 10 large thatched-roof cottages, some with open-air baths and non-public plunge swimming pools; a spa; health club; swimming pool; video games room; a number of bars and a 46-foot boat.
Draper has said that a Caribbean island journey around 2001 planted the seed for Lupita, inspiring him to create an unique retreat of his own.
Following a household safari in Tanzania, Draper and safari operators Tom and Belinda Lithgow selected then-uninhabited Lupita. Construction started in 2004, and the resort opened in 2008 after a reported $6 million investment and numerous expensive mishaps.
He however described Lupita as an “escape hatch” and a long-term wager on African tourism. His said cause for promoting now is a simple one: His household doesn’t use it enough.
The 12,700-square-mile physique of water is shared by Tanzania, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Burundi and Zambia. Pascal RATEAU – stock.adobe.com
Draper is way from the only billionaire to be seduced by island life. Virgin Group founder Richard Branson turned Necker Island in the British Virgin Islands into a luxurious retreat, and purchased close by Moskito Island in 2007, dividing it into non-public estates, while Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison purchased roughly 98% of Hawaii’s Lanai for a reported $300 million in 2012. He subsequently invested in renovating the accommodations, agriculture, inexpensive housing and public facilities
Outside of island life, Draper has spent 4 many years making big Silicon Valley bets. He based Draper Associates in 1985 and later created the Draper Venture Network. His companies have backed a quantity of notable corporations including Hotmail, Skype, Baidu, Tesla, SpaceX, Coinbase and Robinhood.
He’s one of tech’s loudest bitcoin boosters. In 2014, Draper gained a US Marshals public sale for 29,656 bitcoins seized from the Silk Road market, paying roughly $18 million at the time. That haul could be price roughly $2.3 billion at current costs — more than 100 instances its worth in 2014.
For now, Draper’s island experiment has entered its next section: discovering a purchaser prepared to take on both the paradise and the paperwork.
Whatever the eventual deal, Draper says the offers have been fairly entertaining.
“I think, when all is said and done here, you might have a book,” he told The Post.
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