VC Roundup: BioStrategy primes the pump, SeatGeek gets funded

Welcome to our new weekly 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

The fine folks at the Philadelphia Business Journal profile BioStrategy Partners, a biotech incubator. Based in Elkins Park, the nonprofit focuses on first-time business owners and is funded by local universities and medical schools. And, just so you know, someone in the story uses the phrase “prime the pump.”

Another week and another DreamIt Ventures grad gets additional funding. This week it’s SeatGeek’s turn. The company’s founders, if you remember, founded Scribnia, sold it and got working on SeatGeek just before DreamIt’s demo day. The company also demoed at TechCrunch 50.

After the jump, see what firm saw two portfolio companies get additional funding.

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Osage Ventures invests in locally-based Second Life clone

A company screen shot of the Protosphere

Bala Cynwid-based Osage Ventures has announced a Series A investment in ProtonMedia, a company that specializes in creating virtual worlds.

Stopping just short of calling its main product “The Matrix,” ProtonMedia’s primary product is “ProtoSphere” — a platform that customers use to hold virtual meetings and classes. The software allows for voice chat, document transfer and custom avatars, among other features.

The Lansdale-based company is already profitable, boasting some pretty large customers including Comcast and AstraZeneca.

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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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