Edison Ventures raises $249 million for Edison Venture Fund VII

Edison Ventures, the Central Jersey-based venture capital firm, closed out its Edison Venture Fund VII last week at $249 million.

The fund has already invested $55 million in ten companies focused in four technology sectors, according to a press release. Some of the funding recipients include financial technology companies, Andera and Motionsoft, healthcare IT company PHX, interactive marketing and e-commerce companies, NetProspex, Lifebooker, Salsa and MediaBrix, as well as what Edison calls Enterprise 2.0 companies, Ontuitive, Call Copy and Kemp.

Edison, based in Lawrenceville, N.J., plans to apply the same funding strategy it has used with other funds, according to the press release.

From the press release:

“Edison makes initial investments of $5-$10 million in technology companies with a $5-$20 million revenue run rate. Edison invests up to $20 million for expansion, acquisitions and shareholder liquidity. Edison is normally the lead and first institutional investor in its portfolio companies.”

The Edison VII will likely invest in 25-30 companies over the course of three to four years, Edison Principal David Nevas told Technically Philly.

Limited Partners in the Edison VII include  Advantus, certain funds managed by BlackRock Private Equity Partners, New Mexico Employee Retirement Board, Neuberger Berman, Ohio Capital Fund, Orix, Permal Capital, Phoenix Life and Sentry Insurance, according to the press release. The fund also received an allocation of $2 million from the State of New Jersey, as MedCity News reported.

Edison Ventures has a busy week [VC Roundup]

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Edison Ventures has announced a new fund, it’s seventh, totaling $249 million. The fund has already invested $55M in 10 portfolio companies. We’ll have more on the new fund later today.

If you enjoy the VC Roundup we think you’d like Switch Philly. See five Philly startups compete for a prize pack that includes meetings with local angels and VC firms. Judges include Mayor Michael Nutter, First Round Capital Managing Editor Josh Kopelman and Robin Hood Ventures Executive Director Ellen Weber. Early bird tickets are just $5.

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If you are one of those people that thinks Philly doesn’t have enough fundable ideas, Philly Startup Leaders President Bob Moul asks you to reconsider.

Edison Ventures has led a $1.75 million led in Massachusetts-based Blue Cod, which provides insurance services for the property and casualty industries.

On Friday, we covered SmartCap the capitalization tabel tool from DocDep.  “SmartCap is our gift to the community,” said DocDep Director of Marketing and Business Development Rebecca Holloway, “and we hope that startup firms, as well as VC and PE firms use our product.”

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Knowledge@Wharton has a summary of the Wharton Entrepreneurship Conference which includes quotes from Genacast Ventures managing partner Gil Beyda.

It’s not exactly tech but Philadelphia-based Versa Capital Management has acquired a handful of newspapers and niche publications in Pennsylvania.

Comcast Ventures portfolio company BelAir networks recently was acquired by Ericsson. The Ottawa Business Journal has the details.

Ticketleap raises $490,000 [VC roundup]

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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Halfpenny Technologies, a Blue Bell-based provider of medical data technology has raised $2.25 million from a group of mostly local venture capital firms. Participating in the round were Emerald Stage2 Ventures, Osage Venture Partners, and LORE Associates among others.

Safeguard Scientifics led a $2.5 million round for Lumesis, a Connecticut-based financial technology company.

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Ben Franklin Technology Partners makes history with $200K loan [VC Roundup]

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For the first time in state history Ben Frenklin Technology Partners has invested a $200,000 SBA loan. The recipient is Novetas Solutions a maker of environmentally friendly sandblasting materials. The money originates from the Small Business Jobs Act of 2010 and BFTP is one of 20 organizations participating.

First Round to Philly? ChoozOn raised $1.5 million [VC Roundup]

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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.

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NewSpring is raising $200 million [VC Roundup]

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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.

Open Angel Forum III is open for business [VC Roundup]

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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.

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BFTP invests in 11, First Round Capital raises fourth fund

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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.

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Mounty Airy’s DailyWorth raises $2 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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PeopleLinx, a Center City company that advises businesses on social media strategy, has raised $210,000 according to an SEC filing. According to the site, the company was founded by former LinkedIn employees.

DailyWorth, the Mount Airy-based newsletter offering financial advice to women, has raised $2 million from angels that include include 500 Startups’ Dave McClure, TechStar’s Dave Cohen and Eric Schmidt of TomorrowVentures. See our interview with founder Amanda Steinberg here.

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.

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RJ Metrics raises $1.2 million from power users and angels

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.

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