AuctionRover.com Receives $3 Million Investment from Draper Atlantic Venture Fund.RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK Research Triangle Park, research, business, medical, and educational complex situated in central North Carolina. It has an area of 6,900 acres (2,795 hectares) and is 8 × 2 mi (13 × 3 km) in size. Named for the triangle formed by Duke Univ. , N.C.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 28, 1999-- New Online Auction Resource Receives First RTP Funding from Internet-Focused Fund AuctionRover.com(tm) - an Internet start-up that's adding a new dimension to online auctioning - today announced the successful closing of its first round of financing. Draper Atlantic, the East Coast affiliate of Silicon Valley's Draper Fisher Jurvetson Draper Fisher Jurvetson (DFJ) is a venture capital firm based in Menlo Park, California with affiliate offices in more than 30 cities around the world and over $4.5 billion in capital commitments. , led the $3 million round. It is the first of many Internet start-ups Draper expects to fund in the growing Internet technology hotbed of Research Triangle Park. Launching this fall, AuctionRover.com is positioned to be the one-stop portal for online auctions. With resources and services benefiting both bidders and sellers of online merchandise - as well as incorporating fresh and entertaining content - AuctionRover.com takes online auction sites to a new level of depth and functionality. "Draper Atlantic's Internet experience and proven pipeline to Silicon Valley made them a natural partner for us," said AuctionRover.com Founder and CEO (1) (Chief Executive Officer) The highest individual in command of an organization. Typically the president of the company, the CEO reports to the Chairman of the Board. Scot Wingo. "I spoke with entrepreneurs in the Draper portfolio and love that Draper truly 'understands' the Internet space. Draper Atlantic was our first choice among many quality venture capital firms Name Location Founding date Managing Partners/Directors Specialty Capital managed 5AM Ventures Menlo Park, CA; Waltham, MA 2002 John Diekman, PhD (managing partner), Scott Rocklage, PhD (managing partner), Andrew Schwab (managing partner) life sciences $200M [1] who offered to finance AuctionRover.com." "Draper has a track record on the West Coast for identifying young companies destined des·tine tr.v. des·tined, des·tin·ing, des·tines 1. To determine beforehand; preordain: a foolish scheme destined to fail; a film destined to become a classic. 2. for national prominence," said Monica Doss, Executive Director for the Council of Entrepreneurial Development. "We're pleased that they are actively prospecting in the Research Triangle, and that solid, well-led start-ups like AuctionRover.com will benefit from their backing." AuctionRover.com was founded this summer by serial entrepreneurs Wingo and Aris Buinevicius, whose most recent venture, Stingray Software, was acquired by Rogue Wave Software (NASDAQ NASDAQ in full National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations U.S. market for over-the-counter securities. Established in 1971 by the National Association of Securities Dealers (NASD), NASDAQ is an automated quotation system that reports on : RWAV RWAV Rural Workforce Agency Victoria (Australia) RWAV Room With A View ) for $21 million. In forming AuctionRover.com, the two entrepreneurs were able to combine their passion for online auctions with their talent for launching successful companies. Wingo and Buinevicius surveyed the Internet market space and concluded that about a third of all online transactions would soon be conducted through dynamically priced online auctions. Thus, they created AuctionRover.com, which is poised to become the dominant aggregator of dynamic pricing services, content and information. "We met the AuctionRover.com team in early September and were instantly impressed by their vision for the dynamic pricing model," said Dan Rua of Draper Atlantic. "Scot and Aris accomplished great things at Stingray Software and have leveraged that experience to build an open auction aggregation solution that will win on the Internet. We moved quickly because they needed to move to market quickly. We're very excited about AuctionRover's upcoming launch." "Draper was very selective in searching for our first Research Triangle investment," added Tim Draper, Founder and a Managing Director of Draper Fisher Jurvetson. "AuctionRover.com's Internet focus, strong team of serial entrepreneurs and desire to be a national player made them a perfect fit for the Draper family." About AuctionRover.com Founded in July 1999, AuctionRover.com is the one-stop resource for all online auctioning needs. This powerful new site allows buyers to search for items across auction sites, sellers to host images and counters, and provides innovative, relevant content that will keep bidders and sellers informed and entertained. For more information, visit AuctionRover.com at http://www.auctionrover.com About Draper Atlantic Draper Atlantic is the $60M+ East Coast affiliate fund of the Silicon Valley's highly successful Draper Fisher Jurvetson. Draper Atlantic invests in early-stage companies with a particular focus on Internet start-ups. Recently, Draper Atlantic has led financing rounds for AuctionRover.com, Epsilon, MultiCity.com, 2Wrongs.com, SingleSurf.com, and Amazing Media. Draper Fisher Jurvetson's prior investments include Hotmail, the world's largest email provider, which was purchased by Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT MSFT Microsoft (stock symbol) MSFT Movimento Sociale Fiamma Tricolore (Italy) MSFT Multi-Stage Fitness Test MSFT Master of Science in Family Therapy MSFT Macalester Students for Fair Trade ); Four11, Internet White Pages Directory, which was purchased by Yahoo! (NASDAQ: YHOO YHOO Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ symbol) ); Redgate, communications network, and Medior, multimedia information systems, both purchased by AOL (NYSE NYSE See: New York Stock Exchange : AOL); C2B Technologies, a complete Internet shopping platform, which was purchased by Inktomi (NASDAQ: INKT INKT Inktomi, Inc. (stock abbreviation, AMEX) INKT I Never Knew That ); and publicly traded companies Efax.com (NASDAQ: EFAX), fax to Internet gateways and Preview Travel (NASDAQ: PTVL), Internet and AOL-based travel service. Recent IPO (Initial Public Offering) The first time a company offers shares of stock to the public. While not a computer term per se, many founders, employees and insiders of computer companies have found this acronym more exciting than any tech term they ever heard. ?s within the DFJ portfolio include Wit Capital, PLX Technology, Tumbleweed Software, and GoTo.com. More information is available at http://www.draperatlantic.com/ . |
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