VC Roundup: BFTP brags and Neat Co. 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

Just in case you had any doubt that Ben Franklin Technology Partners is one of the shinning stars in a city mostly devoid of pro-business entities, the state-funded organization went ahead and made a list of all the states that are trying to imitate BFTP. Ohio even went ahead and named its BFTP clone the “Thomas Edison” program.

Speaking of ol’ Tommy E, Edison Venture Fund and MentorTech Ventures have invested $2.75 million in the Neat Company, maker of Neat Receipts, a paperless receipt product. Though, if you read our startup roundup, you all ready knew that.

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Startup Roundup: The Neat Company completes $2.5 million round of funding

Introducing Technically Philly’s Startup Roundup. Here, we’ll parse out the small pieces that make our greater Startup ecosystem thrive. We want to keep you in touch with the innovations that we can’t quite get to covering, but that deserve highlight. Follow along with the Startup Roundup’s dedicated RSS feed. If you’ve got news to share, get in touch.

DEFINITE READS

Receipt and business card scanner hardware firm The Neat Company has completed a $2.5 million follow-up round of funding that includes Edison Venture Fund and MentorTech Ventures to expand sales, marketing and product development, according to a press release.

As we reported in our VC Roundup Tuesday, Yardley-based digital security company LifeShield announced that it closed a second round of funding, having now raised $11 million since December.

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VC Roundup: VCs that can kill and the carried interest tax moves along

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.

MUST READS

As we wrote about this morning, our pals at Phillymag wrote a detailed expose on Mike Burns of Guggenheim Venture Partners. The story details the military-like workflow of the under-the-radar firm that focuses on buying distressed assets. We’d link to it, but as of Monday Night it appears the story hadn’t made it online yet. When its up be sure to give a read for an inside look into the only local investment firm that could also kick your ass. The story also had a sidebar of prominent local VC funds including First Round, Gencast and DreamIt.

The National Venture Capital Association continues its fight against a Senate Bill that it says would discourage investment activity. The bill, which would increase taxes on “carried interest” barely passed the passed the House and observers expect the Senate to make significant changes to the bill.

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VC Roundup: Safeguard is all over the place, NuPathe goes for an IPO

Edit: Removed old Safeguard news.

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.

MUST READS

MentorTech Ventures has led a $1.1 million Series A round for SeniorHomes.com, a site that helps people search for nursing homes and similar housing. MentorTech primarily invests in companies with founders and senior staff that have some connection to the University of Pennsylvania. CEO Chris Rodde went to Wharton and subsequently wrote a post on TechFlash about raising the cash.

NuPathe, the pharma company focusing primarily on drugs that are absorbed through the skin, continues its quest to take over the world by announcing an IPO. See our previous coverage here including an interview with CEO Jane Hollingsworth.

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VC Roundup: Diapers.com takes over the world, DreamIt’s largest class ever

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Updated: Clarified Osage Ventures partnerships.

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

PBJ reports that this year’s DreamIt Ventures class of 15 is its largest yet, thanks to a partnership with Brooklyn-based Startl. Five of the fifteen were from the New York fund. Last year Dreamit had 11 companies. Our buddy Peter Key also writes that Steve Barsh will be leaving the incubator to focus on Packlate.com. In a recent interview with Technically Philly, Barsh said he plans on “dedicating ten percent” to the incubator.

Diapers.com is having a hell of a month. The company just finished raising its Series E (!) round to help speed along its already-breakneck growth. The company, originally backed by MentorTech Ventures, is the largest online provider of baby care items in the country. The company has also recently received press in Forbes, TechCrunch and the Financial Times. Fellas, you can now add Technically Philly to your list. You’re welcome.

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VC Roundup: Quaker gets aroused, Safeguard swaps debt

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

As we tweeted yesterday, Fast Company interviewed Josh Kopelman about why people should start a company in Philly. In the interview Kopelman points to local universities and the low cost of living as prime reasons people should set up shop here. The article came after the local community lobbied the magazine to be included in its series.

According to a press release, Quaker BioVentures has teamed up with a student-run VC firm to invest in Semprae Laboratories. The company makes “arousal” oils. Yes, we’re serious.

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TicketLeap stealthily raised $2.5 million in additional funding last year

Update: edited MentorTech info.

According to SEC filings, TicketLeap scored $2.5 million in a funding round that included MentorTech Ventures.

While the money was raised in September of last year, the appropriate SEC filings didn’t get filed until last week. The company choose not to seek any publicity for the new round.

In a phone call to Technically Philly, CEO Christopher Stanchak said the funds weren’t for anything specific and were meant to “scale up” the business.

MentorTech was also included in the company’s 2008 Series A round for $2 million and MentorTech managing partner Michael Aronson sits on the TicketLeap’s board of directors. MentorTech exclusively funds business involving Penn grads or students, including the health system. According to his LinkedIn, Ticketleap CEO Christopher Stanchak is a Wharton ’03 graduate.

Shop Talk: Philadelphia’s venture capital community on Twitter

Image courtesy of millionclues.com

If you have ever shown a friend or relative Twitter, you were probably met with a response along the lines of, “Why would I ever want to use this?”

Mostly, it’s hard to quantify the usefulness of a tool such as Twitter, but the startup and venture capital research Web site Chubbybrain has given it their best shot by asking the question: Do VCs who use Twitter invest in more startups?

The report is an interesting look at how venture capital firms use Twitter while judging its effectiveness. But, as expected, the report focuses mostly on VCs in California, Boston and New York. That got us thinking, what local VC’s are on Twitter?
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