Bouten Combines Business and Engineering Background to Identify and Support IT Investment Opportunities

Research Triangle Park, N.C. (December 04, 2003) – The Aurora Funds, one of the leading early stage venture capital firms in the Southeast, today announced that Jan Bouten has joined the firm as an Associate. Having worked for technology companies such as Larscom, Madge Networks and K-NET, Bouten brings more than seven years of international sales, marketing and engineering experience to the firm and its portfolio companies.

In his new role as Associate, Bouten will serve as part of Aurora’s IT investment team, evaluating new investment opportunities and supporting existing portfolio companies. Bouten joins the Aurora team after earning his Master of Business Administration (MBA) from The Fuqua School of Business at Duke University, where he served as Co-president of the school’s Entrepreneurship and Venture Capital Club, and was awarded the Dean’s Recognition Award for Leadership. He also spent the past year working as an intern with Aurora.
 
“With his education and experience, Jan has the ability to evaluate IT companies from both a business and technology perspective,” explained Scott Albert, Managing General Partner of The Aurora Funds.  “He can also pull from his own entrepreneurial experience, to help fellow engineers that sometimes struggle with the business aspects of building a great technology company.”

In addition to his MBA from Duke, Bouten has earned a Master of Science degree in Artificial Intelligence and Human-Computer Interaction from De Montfort University in the United Kingdom. He also has a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science from Fontys University in Holland.

"I am excited about helping Aurora identify the right IT investment opportunities, and about working with those companies to help them grow here in the US and successfully expand internationally,” said Bouten.

About The Aurora Funds
The Aurora Funds is a seed and early-stage venture capital firm providing capital, connections and strategic help to entrepreneurs with early stage life science and information technology companies. Since its inception in 1994, Aurora has invested in over 40 companies.  Aurora’s investment team members have over 40 years of combined venture capital experience and over 40 years of high technology operational experience. Aurora’s breadth of venture capital investment and operational experience enables the firm’s active approach to working with entrepreneurs to help build successful companies.  The firm is investing out of its recently closed fourth fund of $85 million, and has over $155 million of total capital under management. 

Aurora typically invests in seed and first round financing opportunities. The firm’s initial investment size ranges from $50,000 in a seed investment to as much as $2.0 million in a first round financing. The firm has the capacity to invest between $4 million and $7 million throughout the life cycle of an investment. More information is available at www.aurorafunds.com.

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Contact:
Shawn Ramsey-Kroboth
SRK Communications (for The Aurora Funds)
919-621-0737
shawn@srkcommunications.com

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