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.

MUST READ

Also in SEC filings, King of Prussia-based ChoozOn has raised $1.2 million. As reported by the Philadelphia Business Journal the service, started by Yahoo vets, helps curate deals from around the web.

In case you missed it, we reported on a job posting by First Round Capital suggests that the company is considering a move to Philadelphia.

MIGHT BE WORTH YOUR TIME

Comcast Interactive Capital is among many firms in SnagFilms’ $7 million round. The company, started by Washingting Wizards and Washington Capitals owner Ted Leonsis, is an independent film publisher focused on leveraging new media platforms.

Ben Franklin Technology Partners has released its Annual Performance Profile for 2011. See your tax dollars at work by reading the PDF link here.

Artists and Instigators wakes from its slumber and is among the firms to fund Dwolla, the Des Moins-based payment service. The Series B round is for $5 million. See more from our good friends at Silicon Prarie.

GIVE A GLANCE

DreamIt Ventures is now actively looking for five Israeli startups.

First Round Capital is among the investors to fund UrbanSitter’s $1.75 million Series A round. The company is a matchmaking service for babysitters and parents.

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.

MUST READ

Four new companies have taken up residence [PDF link] at the University City Science Center according to a press release. DreamIt Ventures Kwelia and new online-only publication Med City News are among the group in the Center’s “bullpen” offices.

The Philadelphia Inquirer has a feature on Quanta a Malvern-based maker of high-tech storm windows. The company has received $500,000 in grants from Ben Franklin Technology Partners.

MIGHT BE WORTH YOUR TIME

DreamIt Ventures got a mention from TIME magazine in this link roundup.

Ben Franklin Technology Partners VP of Investment Terrence Hicks will visit the Science Center on February 29th for an informal Q and A session complete with coffee and a light breakfast. Just be sure not to ask him anything from the Q and A we did last Summer.

William Crowder, who headed up the Comcast Minority Entrepreneurial Accelerator Program in Philadelphia this Fall, will be in DC to talk about the incubators upcoming NYC class.

According to Mass High Tech, Osage University Partners is among the firms to invest $20 million in MC10, a maker of flexible electronics.

GIVE A GLANCE

Comcast Ventures threw an awesome party on the West Coast, says this guy.

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.

MUST READ

DuckDuckGo co-founder Gabriel Weinberg announced that Open Angel Forum III will be held on March 22 at Morgan Lewis. The event, which pairs startups with local angel investors for free, is taking applications until February 26th.

The Philadelphia Business Journal has the lowdown on ICG’s new buying mood. Peter Key also highlights how local Philly VC numbers are not recovering on pace with the national market. Nationally, the amount invested in 2011 was the third-highest amount invested in the past decade.

The Jerusalem Post has a lengthy profile about DreamIt Ventures’ new expansion into Israel. The new offshoot of the Philadelphia-born accelerator will be headed by Mitchell Golner. Also this week: DreamIt NYC grad AppAddictive raised $1.2 million.

MIGHT BE WORTH YOUR TIME

Comcast Ventures has invested in the $5 million Series A round of Kiwi Crate, a company that makes products for childhood education. According to a release the company has veterans of eBay, PayPal and YouTube on staff. Business Insider has a detailed look at the company.

GIVE A GLANCE

According to SEC filings, Osage Venture Partners has raised $26.5 million in its third fund. The firm also co-invested in the $4 million Series A round of Identropy a provider of “Identity and Access Management” in the cloud.

Ben Franklin Technology Partners has a new Chairman and Vice Chairman according to a press release.

The investing website Motley Fool thinks that Safeguard Scientifics’ stock is a good investment.

Bristol-based Nitric BioTheraputics has raised $1 million according to SEC filings. The company makes products for Podiatry and Dermatology therapies.

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.

MUST READ

Ben Franklin Technology Partners has invested $1.7 million in 11 local early-stage companies. Companies include Burst Online Entertainment, CloudMine and QR Pharma. More on Cloudmine’s funding here.

Former TechCrunch reporter Sarah Lacy has launched Pando Daily, a new tech news site. The company received $2.5 million from investors that included Josh Kopelman, managing partner at First Round Capital. Kopelman invested as an individual. As best we can tell its his first investment since he shuttered Midas Capital in 2004.

According to PE hub, First Round Capital is raising its fourth fund. The site says the company’s personal and investment strategy will remain the same and for good reason: the firm has a string of high profile investments and exits in the past two years including Philadelphia-born Invite Media.

PE Hub also has the scoop on a new buyout shop in town: Parkes Run Capital.

MIGHT BE WORTH YOUR TIME

Business Insider has a profile on Vox Media, the Comcast Ventures-funded media company responsible for new tech site The Verve.

DreamIt Ventures has been named one of the 10 hottest startup incubator by Forbes. The magazine also muses that maybe startup incubators are better than business school.

Edison Ventures has invested $7.5 million million in KEMP Technologies [PDF link]. The Long Island-based company makes application delivery controllers.

GIVE A GLANCE

First Round Capital portfolio company Fab.com has purchased Fashionstake for an undisclosed amount. The company was described as “a community of indie fashion lovers” in the press release. Also in First Round acquisition land: portfolio company TaskRabbit has acquired SkillSlate. The services are similar, both creating a marketplace for people to complete tasks for others.

Genacast Ventures managing partner Gil Beyda was on a panel on ultralight startups in the 67th ward.

Plymouth Meeting-based Pinnacle 21 has raised $300,000 according the SEC filings. The company makes enterprise data products.

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.

MUST READ

As we reported last week just after our VC Roundup, Center City’s RJ Metrics has raised $1.2 million its users and power angels. The news was also covered on TechCrunch and the Business Journal. Zelkova Ventures writes why they funded the company here.

MIGHT BE WORTH YOUR TIME

Philly Tech News points out that OpenView Venture Parterns has raised $99 million. If you remember, the firm had taken a shine to Philadelphia in 2011. We interviewed Adam Marcus, managing director for the firm here.

StarCite, an ICG portfolio company, has been acquired by San Diego-based Active Network reports Philly Tech News.

GIVE A GLANCE

William Harrington has joined Osage University Parters and as Managing Partner. Harrington formerly worked at California-based Three Arch Partners.

Solve Media, the Philadelphia-born company that places advertisements in CAPTCHAS, has raised a $6 million Series B round from First Round Capital and others. According to Business Insider the company generated $12 million in gross revenue in 2011.

Project Liberty, the incubator based out of Philadelphia Media Network, received a writeup in GigaOm.

RJ Metrics, Center City-based makers of business intelligence SaaS products, have raised $1.2 million from a mix of angel investors from all over the nation.

“The only thing between us and even faster growth was more rapidly iterating on our product and getting in front of even more people,” wrote co-founder Robert Moore in an email to press. “Raising money was the key to going after this huge opportunity as aggressively as possible.”

Founded in Camden by Moore and Jake Stein, the company has had steady rise eliciting praise from customers like Fab.com (whose CEO is an investor) while garnering attention for rap videos, speaking engagements and TechCrunch guest posts.

In 2010, Moore who used to work for a venture capital firm told Technically Philly that he opted not to take outside money.

“We made a decision not to raise any capital as [co-founder Jake Stein] and I had worked in venture capital before and we’ve seen the benefits of waiting to raise money.”

However, Moore said that the company decided that now, as the company doubles down on Philadelphia, was the time. The company opted to rely mostly on angel investors, including DuckDuckGo co-founder Gabe Weinberg for its funding.

“I wouldn’t say I’m weary of VCs,” said Moore in an email to Technically Philly. “I just think it’s common for companies to raise too much money prematurely and for the wrong reasons.  Doing this with angels allowed us to raise the right amount on most desirable timeline. And we’ve gained some amazing partners in the process.”

After the jump, see the company’s complete announcement.

We are proud to announce that RJMetrics has closed a $1.2 Million financing round from a syndicate of world-class technology investors.  Our new investors include SoftTech VC, Lerer Ventures, SV Angel, Zelkova Ventures, Red Swan Ventures, Upstage Ventures, Wharton Professor Kartik Hosanagar, DuckDuckGo CEO Gabe Weinberg, and Fab.com CEO Jason Goldberg.  Jason Goldberg has also joined our Board of Directors.

As a fully-bootstrapped and profitable company, the decision to raise capital was not an obvious one.  Jake and I both worked as VCs prior to founding RJMetrics, and that experience taught us the benefits of waiting as long as possible to raise capital.  We agreed from day-one that we would only take on investors when we were certain that it would generate positive returns.

I’m happy to share why that day finally came.

Why We Did It

Opportunity.  In 2009, Jake and I emerged from my attic with a minimum viable prototype of our hosted business intelligence product.  Jake hammered the phones and we got our first few customers.  By 2010, we had enough revenue to make our first hire.  We improved our processes and product by leaps and bounds.  Word started to spread and more customers arrived.

By the end of 2010, we had grown the team to four people and moved into a real office in Center City Philadelphia.  In 2011, our customer count exploded, our headcount tripled, and our product got even better.

We got efficient.  We added automated marketing with Hubspot, CRM with SalesForce.com, customer support management with Zendesk, code control with Github, product management with FogBugz, and (of course) robust analytics with RJMetrics.

Thanks to our own product, we were seeing compelling data about customer lifetime value and retention.  This led to the conclusion that the only thing between us and even faster growth was more rapidly iterating on our product and getting in front of even more people. Raising money was the key to going after this huge opportunity as aggressively as possible.

Amazing Investors.  We knew that the right investors could contribute far more than capital.  We spoke to a number of institutional investors and angels, and ultimately decided on an angel syndicate because of the speed, flexibility, terms, value-add, and diversity they were able to provide.

We were fortunate to be oversubscribed almost immediately.  This gave us an opportunity to be selective about the partners we chose.  Naturally, everyone is well-connected, smart, and experienced.  If you look closely, however, everyone who invested also falls into at least one of these categories:

• Actual RJMetrics Users: Almost 100% of this round came from firms or individuals who have used our product extensively.  From Jason Goldberg (Fab.com) to Ben Lerer (Thrillist/Lerer Ventures) to Andy Dunn (Bonobos/Red Swan), these investors had done their product diligence without even knowing it.  They will bring practical, in-depth insights to our product development strategy from day-one.
• Stellar West-Coast Investors: Silicon Valley is underrepresented in our customer base, and we see that as a huge market for us in the coming year.  Funds like SV Angel and SoftTech VC give us a west-coast presence and bring credibility, strong networks, and valuable regional expertise to the table.
• SaaS and Lean Startup Experience: Raising money doesn’t mean we’re going to abandon our mantra of capital efficiency.  Investors like Mark Wachen (Upstage Ventures) and Gabe Weinberg have personally built and exited technology companies without depending on outside investors to survive.  Their expansion-stage experience will be invaluable as we take things to the next level.

Why We’re Excited

We Love Doing This.  Every day, we learn something new, interact with the smartest group of people we’ve ever known, and build something that changes the way people think.  There is much, much more that we can do and nothing makes us more excited than working to turn those dreams into reality. This funding is only going to make that happen faster.

We Love Philadelphia.  As we detailed earlier this month, we are proud to call Philadelphia our home and we’re excited about the emerging start-up culture here.  We are also proud to be bringing brand-name capital from both coasts into the Philadelphia technology community.  These dollars will be spent on cultivating local talent, creating jobs, and growing our hometown brand on the global stage.

We’re Just Getting Started.  Raising a round of capital is not the finish line– it’s the starting pistol.  We’ve been working on this company for three years now, but we continue to start each day hungrier than ever.  So, don’t say “congrats.”  Say “good luck.”  And stay tuned.

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.

Note: VC Roundup took a vacation last week. This roundup contains news from the past two weeks. 

MUST READ

According to Form D filings, Center City-based social search engine Cliq has raised $190,000 of a $1 million round. The company, which launched at Philly Tech Meetup in September, uses social graph data to help users find the restaurant most recommended by friends. In a conversation with Technically Philly this Summer, the company hinted that it plans on expanding to other verticals.

Async Recruiting Interview has raised $350,000 of a $750,000 round (Edit: The company says it’s shooting for $500,000). The company, founded by Drexel student Chris Young and Baiada Center advisor and angel investor Ehud Israel helps companies with the recruiting process. We interviewed Young about the startup here and Israel about angel investing here.

In case you missed it last week, Safeguard Scientifics invested $3 million in Virginia-based Crimson Informatics and West Chester-based Hoopla Software.

MIGHT BE WORTH YOUR TIME

Our friends at MedCity News have an interview with DreamIt Ventures Managing Partner Kerry Rupp. In the interview Rupp reveals that the accelerator is looking for more Health IT companies for its upcoming New York City class.

According to the Inquirer, the state has awarded $29.2 million to small-business agencies. Local recepierents include the Ben Franklin Technology Development Partners and the Southeastern Economic Development Corp.

GIVE A GLANCE

The cofounder of Human Capital Solutions met with Osage Partners this week, according to  tweeted:

The Univercity of Maryland Business School has an interview with alum Wayne Kimmel, Managing Partner at Artists and Instigators. The company/firm hasn’t launched yet, but we’re told its going to be a consumer-facing brand targetted towards entrepreneurs.

Osage University Partners posted its 10 contrarian predictions for 2012. Included: mobile health is overhyped and Series A investing will “grind to a halt” in the medical technology industry.

Safeguard Scientifics announced late last week its investment in Crimson Informatics and Hoopla Software. The deals:

Crimson Informatics – A Richmond, Virginia “Internet of Things” company focuses on measuring driving data for insurance purposes. Safeguard invested $1.7 million in its $1.8 million Series A round.

Hoopla Software – Based in West Chester, the company helps “gamify” sales teams by displaying sales statistics from Salesforce complete with a SportsCenter-like leader board [see below]. Safeguard invested $1.3 million of the company’s $2.3 million Series A round.

“We are excited by the opportunity to partner with these innovative, next-generation companies that have first-mover advantage in their respective industries,” said Safeguard CEO Peter Boni in the press release.

Our good friend Chris McDemus of MCD Law Partners, also known as VC Deal Lawyer, will be setting up shop at the Technically Media offices at 1515 Market Street and welcoming all entrepreneurs for a free “open office” session. To schedule a half-hour session, sign up for a time slot here. When you enter the building, simply show the guards your ID and visit us at Suite 400 on the fourth floor.

McDemus has over 15 years experience helping small businesses navigate fund raising, intellectual property concerns and more. See his full bio here. We’ll also be floating around if you have a demo you’d like to show us for a possible feature here on Technically Philly.

McDemus will be at our offices starting at 10 a.m. and will also be holding similar sessions at Quorum and Indy Hall at other times in January.

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.

MUST READS

Novotorium, the new Langhorne-based business accelerator, has announced 25 partnerships to help support the businesses it will house. The partnerships include Chariot Solutions, SEER Interactive and Weber Law. Novotorium is currently accepting applications for resident companies.

In case you missed it, we chatted with Louis Toth of Comcast Ventures for our Friday Q and A last week. We talked about the differences between a strategic VC firm and a regular one, as well as Comcast’s focus on media and content.

MIGHT BE WORTH YOUR TIME

Edison Ventures has announced a $4 million investment in MediaBrix, the New York City-based social media advertising company. Edison is the only investor in the company.

Tal Raviv formerly of DreamIt Ventures company Dropcard is pushing a new venture, Ecquire. The productivity tool was featured in a Vancouver Sun series about the company’s quest chasing incubators and funding in Silicon Valley.

Zaarly, funded by Artists and Instigators, has opened up a new office in New York City. The company was welcomed to its new digs by Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

GIVE A GLANCE

David Nevas, a Philly resident, has been named principle at Edison Ventures. In other “people” news, former entrepreneur Jordan Elpern-Waxman has joined Genacast Ventures. By our calculations, Gencast Ventures has tripled its staff in less than a year to three.

Comcast Ventures has been named in a $6 million funding round for CarWoo, the car marketplace. Comcast Ventures also invested in 2010. The firm was busy, also investing in Outfit7, the maker of a talking character application.

First Round Capital has led a $1.5 million seed round in Percolate, the New York City-based company that helps users surface relevant content.