Philly’s venture capitalists are local innovators, says former Daily News editor [VC Roundup]

Welcome to the VC Roundup, 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

Venture capitalists get big nods in former Philadelphia Daily News editor Larry Platt’s column about the “disrupters” in Philly who are changing things for the better. Platt mentions Richard Vague of Gabriel Investments (find our recent coverage of Vague here), Josh Kopelman and First Round Capital‘s move to Philly and Terry Williams of Next Stage Capital and his venture Cross X Platform, which exchanges services for equity. Cross X Platform, or CXP, is based in Montgomery County, where Next Stage Capital is also located.

While no Philly companies got chosen for the Wall Street Journal’s “Next Big Thing” list, Comcast Ventures-backed DocuSign made it to #6, GeekWire reports.

GIVE A GLANCE

Comcast Ventures participated in a $15 million round for RAMP, a platform that promises to get online publishers “the most out of their content,” VentureBeat reports.

ChargeItSpot, the University City-based company that offers a secure way to charge your cell phone inside stores, raised $400,000, according to an SEC filing. (The company’s service is free for consumers and they charge retailers.) The company is led by May 2012 Wharton MBA alumnus Doug Baldasare, according to this tweet.

MIGHT BE WORTH YOUR TIME

DreamIt Ventures founder Steve Welch has an op-ed in the Philadelphia Inquirer about President Obama’s “Pay As You Earn” college loan program.