The Draper family will receive its prestigious 2012 Innovation Catalyst Award (ICA). Every year VC Taskforce honors an individual or group in the venture capital community for distinguished work in innovation and entrepreneurship.  The Draper family has, over three generations, invested in and grown hundreds of start-up companies, many of which have become household names, such as Activision, Hotmail and Skype.  This year’s ICA Event Gala will be held on Tuesday, October, 30, 2012.

“Venture capital runs deep in the Draper blood,” wrote Eric Schmidt, Executive Chairman of Google, in the foreword of Bill Draper’s 2011 memoir, “The Startup Game: Inside the Partnership between Venture Capitalists and Entrepreneurs.” “General William Draper Jr. was a pioneering American venture capitalist who started the world’s first limited partnerships. His son Bill, who now has several hundred investments to his name, got started in 1959, before the phrase ’venture capital’ was even understood. Bill’s son, Tim, is among the most prominent VCs working today. All three Drapers have played an integral role in the unfolding of this fascinating venture capital entrepreneurial ecosystem.”

In 1959, General William Draper Jr. made history when, together with two friends, he formed Draper, Gaither, and Anderson, the first venture capital firm on the West Coast, in Palo Alto. It was the first limited partnership in the world.

In 1962, Bill H. Draper left his father’s firm to form Sutter Hill Ventures with friend Pitch Johnson. Early investments included Tellabs, Xidex, Linear Technology and AmeriGroup. Sutter Hill developed what today is known as the entrepreneur-in-residence program.

In 1994, Bill Draper and Robin Richards Donohoe founded Draper International, the first U.S. venture capital fund to focus on investing in private companies with operations in India. In 2002, he co-founded Draper Richards LP, a venture capital fund that invests in early-stage technology companies in the U.S., and also founded Draper Investment Company, which concentrates on seed investments in Europe and Asia. Bill was a founding investor in Hotmail, Skype, OpenTable, Athenahealth, Apollo Computer (acquired by Hewlett Packard), Dionex, Integrated Genetics (Genzyme), Quantum, Qume (I.T.T.), Activision (Mediagenic), Xidex (Eastman Kodak), Measurex, Hybritech (Eli Lilly), and LSI Logic.