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

According to the VCs assembled in New Jersey for the New Jersey Technology Council conference, VC activity is primed to heat up in the coming months. Bala Cynwyd-based Osage Partners was among the local firms in attendance. “If you can survive the last three years, then you have something,” said one attendee.

Ben Franklin Technology Partner has anounced nearly $600,000 in investment, including $50,000 going to Viddler. If you remember, Viddler told us in October: “We’re done funding.”

MIGHT BE WORTH YOUR TIME

South Plainfield-based Petra Energy has raised $40 million to hire 30 employees. None of the funding sources were local. The company makes solar panels for utility poles.

Thanks to their love of blogging and their penchant for making a new deal every 15 minutes, First Round Capital is the most trafficked VC website in the country. No other local firms made the list.

GIVE A GLANCE

NestStage Capital has gone intercontinental and invested 2 million ($2.75 million) in the French company Resto in. The startup allows users to order restaurant-quality food online. Though, being Europe and all, it is still unclear whether you tip the delivery boy.

And now for the most low-tech VC deal you’ll ever see: Pret-Mose has raised $20 million, led by locally-based Murex Investments, to purchase Hitcharama Recreational Vehicles of Turnersville, NJ. We can only hope it is to use the RVs to film a road trip reality show.

Osage Ventures travels north to Boston and adds to its current investment of Landslide Technologies. The company, which develops business software, also hired a new CEO.

DreamIt and Wizhive co-founder Mike Levinson is going public in his search for talent. Levinson has posted to Monster.com his need of “bright, creative, rising stars.”

The VC Roundup will deliver Philadelphia private equity news hot and fresh every Tuesday morning.

They’re going to incubate profitable good works.

That’s much the angle of GoodCompany Ventures, which opened its Philadelphia Naval Yard Business Center offices with a ribbon-cutting ceremony highlighted by appearances from Mayor Michael Nutter and Chuck Lacy, a former president of Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream, yesterday.

All the startups they take in will be for-profit and looking to make a difference or two.

Yesterday, the incubator was also welcoming its inaugural 2009 class of “social entrepreneurs,” including the following: Cyrus-XP, which focuses on advancing the management and delivery of healthcare; CalendarFly, a single source scheduling solution for families (for a test drive, use “student for username and password), and VolunteerBIG.com, a philanthropic social network that was gunning for grant money earlier this year.

GoodCompany aims to provide guidance and support to those for-profit startups that want to tackle large, unmet social needs. Like others, the incubator will offer those accepted training, mentoring, administrative and other pro-bono services. The new effort is co-founded by Resources for Human Development, a social finance firm and Murex Investments, an equity fund backed by leading financial institutions — both of which are based (barely) in Tioga — in addition to other business support.

At yesterday’s event, Lacy, the former Ben & Jerry’s president who is now president of the Vermont-based social capital firm Barred Rock Fund, addressed the attendees, as did Stephen Goodman, a partner at law firm Morgan Lewis, according to a press release from the incubator.

GoodCompany is sponsored by the Philadelphia Industrial Development Corporation, the Center City love child of the city and the Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce that promotes economic developing in town, Trellist Marketing, the Wilmington, Del. Web marketer and the Wharton School of Business.