Smarter Agent, Proton Media raise cash; Boni named “Master Entrepreneur”

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 (and other TP content) as an email newsletter. If you have any VC-related news to pass along to us, please drop us a line.
DEFINITE READS

Virtual world developer ProtonMedia has raised $4 million led by Kaplan Ventures. Kaplan Ventures is the strategic fund of Kaplan, the test tutoring service owned by the Washington Post. Local VCs Osage and Originate Ventures also participated in the funding. We profiled the company in 2010.
MIGHT BE WORTH YOUR TIME
Comcast Ventures is among the handful of companies that invested $2.5 million in Ortiva Wireless, a San Diego-based company that focuses on technology that optimizes streaming across wireless networks.
Our bud Mike Armstrong writes about how tabacco lawsuit money has been used for venture capital purposes, funding over 41 companies.
GIVE A GLANCE
Peter J. Boni was named Master Entrepreneur of the Year 2011 by Ernst & Young. Regular Venture Capital Roundup readers will know that Safeguard Scientifics has been on a roll in the past few months with several exits and a soaring stock.
Comcast Ventures is among the seven companies investing $50 million in iControl. The Palo Alto-based company writes software that allows home devices to be used with energy management processes.
In case you missed it, we interviewed Donald Caldwell of Cross Atlantic Capital Partners about the future of his fund and his pending lawsuit with Facevok.