Links: Penn professors using robotics to fight Alzheimer’s, PHILO launches and More

DEFINITE READS

• The New York Times reports that two University of Pennsylvania professors are challenging Alzheimer’s disease with a new drug-discovery program and a $1.5 million robot.
• Inc. magazine lists Andrew Kortina and Iqram Magdon-Ismail of mobile payment service Venmo on their 30 under 30.

MIGHT BE OF INTEREST

• Geekadelphia reports on PHILO, a Philadelphia based startup connecting social media and TV watching.
• The Flightster blog shares something of an essay on Philadelphia still being a city of revolution, focusing on Indy Hall, Nat Mechanics and Old City.

GIVE A GLANCE

• Peter Key at the Philadelphia Business Journal reports that “RoseAnn Rosenthal, the president and CEO of Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Southeastern Pennsylvania, has been selected by U.S. Commerce Secretary Gary Locke to be a member of the National Advisory Council on Innovation and Entrepreneurship.”
• On his personal blog, Duck Duck Go founder Gabe Weinberg announces the launching of his duck.co community forum.
• Geekadelphia also gives us the latest on the Walnut Street Apple Store — a sign.

Every Friday morning, we make sure you didn t miss anything with Friday Tech Links.

VC Roundup: BFTP named to federal board, local angels get coverage from the NYT

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
Philly Tech News is reporting that First Round Capital has invested in locally-based advertising company AdCopy, the company that inserts advertising into CAPTCHAs. Though we can’t verify it anywhere else, our friends at PTN are typically on point, so keep an eye out.

We’re a bit late on this, but Safeguard Scientifics’ Kevin Kemmerer extrapolates on one of the questions asked by Technically Philly during his Q&A earlier this month. Kemmerer, EVP and managing director of Safeguard technology group, explains why  Safeguard, a publicly traded company, is different than other VC firms.

Ben Franklin Technology Partners has invested nearly $1.8 million in nine local companies. Read our complete coverage here.

First Round receives praise for thinking ahead in this Silicon Alley Insider piece about the current and future state of venture capital. If you’re new to private equity, we highly suggest you give it a read.

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Ben Franklin Technology Partners: Budget cuts would “unravel” local startup support

Ben Franklin Technology Partners is keeping a close eye on the state budget.

For the past five weeks, Pennsylvania has been operating without a budget as state legislators wrestle between a 16 percent income tax increase and cuts in state spending, among other points of contention between the Democratically-controlled House and the Republican-controlled Senate.

As a result, state employees are no longer being paid, and expired unemployment benefits are not receiving an extension (though a tiny no-frills emergency budget may pass soon).

Caught up in the hurricane of the state budget debate is BFTP, a state-funded early stage investment group that could see its budget slashed by up to 60 percent. The organization is now asking its constituents to help push their state legislator to keep the group’s funding levels intact.

Otherwise, a cut to the funding to BFTP could have a dramatic impact on the city and the region.

And if you’re a reader of Technically Philly, that probably means you.

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Regional entrepreneurship foundation takes major players on its advisory board

A slew of big names were named to the advisory board of the Philadelphia Chapter of the National Foundation for Teaching Entrepreneurship to Youth.

All told, 13 new members were appointed, including former RedLasso CEO Kenyon Hayward, RoseAnn B. Rosenthal, the longtime president of Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Southeastern Pennsylvania, and Temple University President Ann Weaver Hart, according to a press release.

The regional incarnation of the New York City-based nonprofit is headquartered at Temple and follows the group’s mission of providing entrepreneurship education programs to young people from low-income communities.

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