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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Links: Pittsburgh top 10 city to launch business, Best Places to Work and More

• CNN Money ranks Pittsburgh as the second best city in the country to launch a small business, behind Oklahoma City. Houston, the 67th ward and Baltimore were listed among the top 10, but, no, Philadelphia wasn’t.
• Clickz reports that myYearbook has seen a marked 40 percent decline in its less than 2 percent share of U.S. social network traffic. H/T Philly Tech News

MIGHT BE WORTH YOUR TIME

• The Philadelphia Business Journal’s Peter Key reports that four companies from the 2009 DreamIt Ventures class were part of a NYC Demo Day, organized by two of those business.
• The Business Journal released its 2009 Best Places to Work list.

After the jump, recognition for the Neat Company, a big investment firm for a Princeton music software startup and more.

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MAC Alliance CEO Thomas Balderston steps down

Thomas Balderston

According to Peter Key over at the Philadelphia Business Journal, Thomas M. Balderston has resigned his post as the Chief Executive of the Mid Atlantic Capital Alliance.

The MAC alliance is an affiliate of the city’s Chamber of Commerce that works to link up entrepreneurs and those with capital in our area. The group regularly hosts events for local business owners and investors.

Balderston made the move known at the group’s annual awards luncheon last Thursday, presumably making the move to focus on his own fund at King of Prussia-based Balderston Capital that he started in 2001.

The move is a big deal for the MAC Alliance, and is its first change in CEO since the group widened its coverage area. When Balderston took the helm of the then-named Greater Philadelphia Venture Group in 2006, he announced that he would be stretching the group’s reach from New York City (a.k.a. the 67th ward) to Washington D.C. Using his 20-plus years in the venture business he did just that, helping MAC Alliance expand to outside of city limits while continuing its march back to relevancy.

Balderston is still listed as CEO on MAC’s Web site. He also is still on the Board of Directors for Ben Franklin Technology Partners and is listed as a Principal investor in Rosemont Investment Partners.

Hat tip to the Phildelaphia Business Journal.

Lockheed Martin developing smarter robotics in South Jersey

A major corporation’s subdivision in our region is becoming a leading innovator in “brain-inspired computing,” according to a Philadelphia Business Journal story by their technology writer Peter Key, who, our sources tell us, can rock a mean air guitar.

The Cherry Hill-based Lockheed Martin Advanced Technology Laboratories has spent the last four years researching “brain-inspired computing” and is poised to make inroads in the science fiction-style technology, fueled by recent funding from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency — which is credited for offering the initial funding for a little project that helped lead to the Internet.

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Small business love, optimism growing

Small business owners across the country are more optimistic now than they were even just in November, according to a survey by the parent company of the Philadelphia Business Journal.

That optimism also comes with a great deal of insecurity about expansion, showing small businesses are battening down for a continued, battering economic climate.

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Comcast rolling out faster Internet speeds, but not in Philly

Comcast, our friendly neighborhood telecommunications giant, has announced it is rolling out faster Internet speeds, according to the Philadelphia Business Journal.

As you might expect, the Center City-based company is starting its transition from broadband to what it calls wideband in the heart of Philadelphia — South Jersey.

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Semiconductor company Ciclon sold to Texas Instruments

King of Prussia-based Guggenheim Ventures, the venture-capital arm of financial-services firm Guggenheim Partners, announced today it has sold Ciclon Semiconductor Device Corp. to Texas Instruments for an undisclosed total, according to the Philadelphia Business Journal.

Ciclon, which is based in Bethlehem, makes semiconductors that aim to allow computers to use less electricity. Texas Instruments is based in Dallas.

Photo courtesy of Qdev.de.