Jan Cate

Jan ten Cate is a Dutch chartered accountant (Registered Accountant, NBA) and Registered Valuator (NiRV) who has spent his career in audit, corporate banking, private equity and M&A advisory. He studied business economics (HEAO, Groningen, graduating in 1989) and worked from 1990 to early 1998 in the audit practice of PricewaterhouseCoopers, completing his post-graduate accountancy qualification along the way. He then moved to Friesland Bank N.V., first in Internal Audit and, from 2001, into the bank's private-equity / participations arm as an investment manager.

In early 2007 he co-founded NoorderHuys Participaties in Joure together with John Ritchi, Johannes Osinga and Alfred Stel. At NoorderHuys his core competences were financial control, internal operations, accounting and operational restructuring of portfolio companies. The firm is a mid-market private equity ("participatie") house rather than an angel or seed investor: it backs established Dutch businesses valued between roughly €2M and €40M, investing €0.5M–€9M of its own capital per transaction, and its team has been involved in some 50 transactions over the years.

Since 2012 he has been Owner & Partner at De Valck Dealmakers, a corporate-finance and M&A boutique in Heerenveen (Friesland). There he advises entrepreneurs on buy- and sell-side M&A processes, business valuations and financing, positioning himself as an "analytical, precise, efficient and goal-oriented" adviser with a hands-on, no-nonsense style.

Note on the stub data: the "Angel Investors / Seed Round" labels do not match the primary sources. Ten Cate's investing activity is through NoorderHuys, a mid-market private-equity firm doing growth and buy-out deals, and his current day-to-day role is as an M&A/corporate-finance partner. The contact details (NoorderHuys email and a Friesland 0513 phone number) are retained as provided.

• Invests as a mid-market private-equity partner, not a startup angel: established, cash-generative Dutch companies rather than pre-revenue startups.
• Target size: businesses with an enterprise value of ~€2M–€40M; NoorderHuys commits ~€0.5M–€9M of equity per deal.
• Stage: growth capital, management buy-outs/buy-ins, succession and restructuring situations.
• Sectors: generalist, with realized deals in fashion/apparel retail, jewelry retail, machinery/metalworking and event ticketing.
• Firm motto: *"Ondernemen is hard werken om dromen te realiseren"* ("Entrepreneurship is hard work to realize dreams") — signalling an operational, hands-on partnership approach.
• Personal edge is financial rigour and valuation (RA + RV credentials): he underwrites on numbers, reporting quality, internal organization and financeability, and has led operational restructurings inside portfolio companies.