(Bloomberg) -- Sri Lanka’s economic meltdown was one for the history books. At its cataclysmic height last summer, protesters stormed the presidential palace in Colombo, jumping in the pool, taking selfies in the kitchen and refusing to leave until top officials resigned.

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But a few minutes down the road, in an elegant building housing the country’s top startups, Sri Lanka’s entrepreneurs are brimming with optimism. The clash is over, and venture investors including Tim Draper are discovering the island nation and its blossoming technology sector.

The wealthy tycoon, a crypto-enthusiast and early backer of companies like Tesla Inc. and Baidu Inc., spent several days this year in Colombo filming an episode of the US show Meet the Drapers — in which startups compete for a $1 million check from the investor and his family. At a recent speakers panel called Troubled Nation to Startup Nation, Draper urged Sri Lankan entrepreneurs to inaugurate “a global hackathon against corruption.”

“Sri Lanka has been painted into a corner,” he told the crowd, a mix of local business brass and startup founders. “Entrepreneurs can be the little ripple that turns a tidal wave of economic growth.”

That vision has promise for the indebted nation, whose default last year forced the government to seek a bailout from the International Monetary Fund. The lender approved a $3 billion loan program last week. With a strong labor force and near-universal literacy, Sri Lanka can scale its technology industry fairly seamlessly, Draper and others argue. Technology is already Sri Lanka’s third-largest export after apparel and tea. The country is setting an ambitious goal of raising $5 billion by 2025 — more than tripling the current figure.