VC Roundup: Mid-Atlantic Angel Group raises nearly $5 million

Welcome to the VC Roundup, where we’ll parse through venture capital news related to Philadelphia-based private equity firms and the companies they fund. Subscribe to the roundup as an email newsletter. If you have any VC-related news to pass along to us, please drop us a line.

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Mid-Atlantic Angel Group has raised $4.8 million for its second fund. The sneaky angel fund based in the Navy Yard said that it doesn’t have as many investors, but each individual investor has thrown in more cash this time. MAG primarily only invests alongside other companies and rarely leads a round.

The Inky’s Joe Destefano tells us what regular readers of the VC roundup probably already know: That First Round Capital averages a deal a week, ranking third-most among all VC firms. We’d give you more numbers, but we don’t want to steal Joe D’s thunder. Read his piece which includes other active Philly firms.

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VC Roundup: The ECI gets press, First Round “likes” last week

Welcome to the VC Roundup, where we’ll parse through venture capital news related to Philadelphia-based private equity firms and the companies they fund. Subscribe to the roundup as an email newsletter. If you have any VC-related news to pass along to us, please drop us a line.

DEFINITE READS

Google has purchased First Round portfolio company Like.com for “upwards of $100 million.” If memory serves us correctly, that means that the Like.com, a visual search engine, is First Round’s biggest exit since Mint.com.

The Inky has a write up on the Energy Commercialization Institute, a joint effort between Ben Franklin Technology Partners and local universities. So far, the group has handed out just over $500,000 to local alternative energy companies. Peter Key over at the Business Journal also has a feature about the group.

While its not specific to local, all entrepreneurs should check out two posts from the national technology community. First, the “F@#% You Money” spreadsheet compiled by Tony Wright, who asserts that selling a startup to a large company is no guarantee of riches. Second, Mike Arrington’s assertion that the VC market is changing echoes what many VCs and entrepreneurs have told us privately and is a must-read.

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Apparently, early stage investors aren’t endangered

This post originally ran on Philly VC Deal Lawyer a blog about Philly startups by Christopher McDemus. It is re-purposed here with permission, as part of a partnership.

You may recall my earlier post from a few weeks ago entitled “Are True Early Stage Investors An Endangered Species?“  After laying down some background, I took the position that super-angel funds and incubators/accelerators (e.g., Y Combinator, TechStars, DreamIt), had the best chance of solving the early stage funding gap and that capital efficiencies and bootstrapping might help temporarily fill in some of the other holes.  Since I wrote that post, there’s been a lot of online traffic surrounding this issue.

Much of it was ignited by conversations emanating out of Y Combinator’s AngelConf on July 29th.  All of the new super-angel funds popping up in the past few weeks just add to the fervor.  Just today, the WSJ put out a piece noting that Aydin Senkut (former Googler) is closing a $40M super-angel fund, which follows Ron Conway’s $20M super-angel fund, Chris Sacca’s (former Googler) $8.5M super-angel fund, Dave McClure’s (former PayPal’r) $30M super-angel fund and Mike Maples’ new $73.5M super-angel fund.

Here are some of the articles that popped up since my last piece:

Read the rest here.

VC Roundup: NuPathe IPO, no more DreamIt Ventures

Welcome to the VC Roundup, where we’ll parse through venture capital news related to Philadelphia-based private equity firms and the companies they fund. Subscribe to the roundup as an email newsletter. If you have any VC-related news to pass along to us, please drop us a line.

DEFINITE READS

Later today, look out for the emerging details about Philly Mag’s story on Guggenheim Ventures.

Technically Philly wasn’t the only publication to write about DreamIt Demo Day, a handful of other publications also weighed in. In a guest post by DreamIt partner Mike Levinson, TechCrunch takes a very black and white approach offering short paragraphs about every company. PhillyInc looks at DreamIt in perspective of the larger economic climate and the Philadelphia Business Journal focuses more on Startl’s relationship with DreamIt. Of course, you can always look at our three-post Demo Day preview series, our awards post for Demo Day and our collection of videos and pictures from the big day. The DreamIt companies are packing up a leaving the Science Center this week.

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DreamIt Demo Day 2010: And the winner for best company is…

DreamIt Partner Steve Welch introduces Mind Snacks

This was no ordinary graduation.

Their summer over, the 14 companies incubated in DreamIt Ventures no longer have the luxury of seed money, free office space and daily mentorship and must now strike out on their own. Despite the celebratory nature of Demo Day, the work of the 2010 Dreamit Ventures graduates has only just begun (read more about each company in our three-part Demo Day Preview series).

But first, each company was given seven minutes to present its business models, team and funding needs to a packed house of investors, entrepreneurs, lawyers and others with the hopes of netting investment, more customers or advisers. Each company then fielded a small number of questions before handing the microphone over to the company next in line, making the presentations move like DreamIt itself: quickly and efficiently .

A chart detailing which DreamIt companies are at revenue (click to enlarge)

If there is a theme to DreamIt’s class of 2010, it’s the use of social media to add transparency to industries that badly need it. Giveloop adds accountability to donations, Vozeeme helps truckers fulfill inventory through an open bidding process and Easel uses the web to connect tutors to students, to name a few.

But with 14 companies, it can be tough to keep track of all of the presentations. So, as per tradition, Technically Philly has a few awards to hand out. After the jump, see who had the face the toughest crowd, which company necessitated ”your mom” jokes and, of course, our pick for best company.

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VC Roundup: Massachusetts edition

Welcome to the VC Roundup, where we’ll parse through venture capital news related to Philadelphia-based private equity firms and the companies they fund. Subscribe to the roundup as an email newsletter. If you have any VC-related news to pass along to us, please drop us a line.

DEFINITE READS

Reuters has a profile (complete with video) on First Round Capital’s Phineas “Phin” Barnes. Barnes plaed basketball in college and started his career at AND1, the basketball shoe company that was formally based in Paoli. Since then he has worked at MTV before becoming a principal at First Round.

Safeguard partner company NuPath, the Conshohocken-based specialty pharmaceutical company, has dialed back expectations for its IPO, exactly as Joe Destefeno predicted.

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VC Roundup: Robin Hood moves, BrainRewards raises cash

Welcome to the VC Round-up, where we’ll parse through venture capital news related to Philadelphia-based private equity firms and the companies they fund. Subscribe to the roundup as an email newsletter. If you have any VC-related news to pass along to us, please drop us a line.

DEFINITE READS

In case you missed it last week, we reviewed all of the 14 companies in DreamIt Ventures. The companies will be showing off their summer’s work on August 11th at Demo Day.

Robin Hood Ventures has moved into the University City Science Center. While the angel investing group has been in the Science Center since May, the group just released the news late last week. In an email to Technically Philly, Executive Director Ellen Weber said that the group made the move to be closer to entrepreneurs. Life Science investor BioAdvance also joined the Science Center.

MIGHT BE WORTH YOUR TIME

Wallingford-based educational gaming company BrainRewards is raising $750,000, according to SEC filings.

Edison Ventures completed its $5 million investment in Blue Cod Technologies, a Massachusetts-based insurance technology company.

Mt. Laurel-based Jumpstart has invested $500,000 in ConnectYard, a company that provides communication tools for students and teachers.

GIVE A GLANCE

Our good friend Joey D. wonders if NuPathe’s IPO will suffer the same fate as other Safeguard Scientifics IPO offerings. In the meantime, Safeguard announced that its earnings are growing.

Cross Atlantic Capital Partners has invested $4 million in Health Market Science, a provider of healthcare data technology.

Venture Capital news site thefunded.com has listed First Round Capital as the fourth-best VC firm in the country.

DreamIt Ventures Demo Day preview (part two)

Edited: Corrected Campus Sponsorship details.

In part two of our DreamIt Demo Day preview series, we preview two companies that continue a noticeable trend in this year’s DreamIt class: the reliance on social networks for user acquisition.

With the exception of Adapt.ly and Giveloop, all of the companies previewed yesterday lean heavily on Facebook to create a frictionless login service and to help promote user actions to friends and these two companies are no different.

After the jump, read our previews of 8tysix and Campus Sponsorship to get you ready for August 11th and see which company told us that its site has “double rainbow possibility.”

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DreamIt Ventures Demo Day preview (part one)

Edit: added beta code for Adapt.ly

This year, it’s different.

For the past three summers Dreamit Ventures has incubated early-stage startups at the University City Science Center, giving each startup a small bit of seed capital while providing advice from some of the brightest entrepreneurial minds in the city.

Startups like SCVNGR, Seatgeek and Notehall all have roots in the incubator.

This year, DreamIt upped the ante by partnering with Brooklyn-based Startl to incubate more companies than ever and DreamIt is starting to receive national attention as one of the best early stage technology incubators in the country.

“One barometer [for the city] is DreamIt,” says Gil Beyda, founder of an early stage technology-focused venture capital firm Genacast Ventures. “Year after year, I’ve seen better companies and better entrepreneurs coming out of there.”

The first two DreamIt seasons culminated in Demo Day, an all-day event where companies show off their wares in the hopes of attracting attention and investment — see last year’s coverage — and that much will stay the same this year when the companies gather on August 11th.

Technically Philly stopped by the incubator last week to get a sneak peak of what some of the companies are working on, and five of 14 were ready to offer a small preview of what they will be presenting.

In the first of three parts, we look at Yunno, Adapt.ly and Give Loop. Tomorrow we will preview two additional companies and on Friday we’ll round up those who didn’t demo their product for us.

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VC Roundup: DreamIt in Forbes Magazine

Welcome to the VC Round-up, where we’ll parse through venture capital news related to Philadelphia-based private equity firms and the companies they fund. Subscribe to the roundup as an email newsletter. If you have any VC-related news to pass along to us, please drop us a line.

DEFINITE READS

Edit: Kerry Rupp clears up a few facts in the comments below.

DreamIt Ventures gets a feature in this month’s Forbes focusing on managing partners Steven Welch, Kerry Rupp, Michael Levinson and David Book. The story provides a digestible overview for those not familiar with the University City Science Center-based business incubator and provides lots of numbers and personal backstory for those more knowledgeable about the program. The most surprising fact uncovered by Forbes: none of the companies incubated by DreamIt have turned a profit. Look out for our Demo Day preview on Wednesday to get a sneak peak at some of the companies in this year’s class.

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