A Philly venture-capital firm finds few deals here

Since 2000, NewSpring Capital in Radnor, one of the more enduring Philadelphia-area venture-capital firms, has invested $1.6 billion of clients' money in 122 companies and sold off 46.

Early on, NewSpring and its clients, which include the Pennsylvania State Employees' Retirement System, "made a lot of money" from a string of successful area companies -- LiquidHub, TMG Capital, eCount, Nutrisystem -- partner Marc Lederman said.

Profitable funds keep raising more money and finding new places to put it. Last year was "definitely the biggest year in terms of the number of deals," with 16 in 2016, and the dollar value -- $175 million -- was also "the most we've ever done," Lederman added.

Yet only one of those 16 software, engineering and retail investments -- Advanced Call Center Technologies, of Berwyn -- was based within two hours of Philadelphia.

Another 13 are based within a few hours' road, rail or fly time: Altus debt collectors in Louisiana; Circonus engineering analytics in western Maryland; ReviMedia sales leads in New York and overseas; Interactions virtual assistants in Massachusetts; and Annapolis-based South Moon Under stores, among others across the eastern United States, from New England to Florida to Minnesota. Two more are in California.

"We're staying U.S.-focused, 90 percent east of the Mississippi," Lederman confirmed. "We started with a focus on the Amtrak corridor, D.C. up to Boston. We've started to extend it west -- we have an office in Chicago, we have teams focused on New York and Boston, we have a new team in Atlanta. We're also focusing on areas that are a bit underserved in terms of capital."

Why not more in Philadelphia? "Washington, D.C., and New York are ranked the top markets in the country for the Inc. 5000," he said, and prime hunting grounds for venture capital, along with California. "Boston and Philadelphia are also in the Top 10," but NewSpring is too big to focus on the relatively limited opportunities here, said Lederman, who remains a director of the region's leading tech-investment promotion group, the Philadelphia Association for Capital and Technologies.

He and his NewSpring colleagues often advise early-stage PACT members and watch them grow. eCount founders Matt Gillin and Paul Raden now run Relay Network in Radnor, which NewSpring also backs.

But as far as deal-sized companies are concerned, "right now we're in a lull in the Philadelphia area," Lederman concluded.

New angels in town. A group of members of Philadelphia's Union League has started an investors' club for early-stage companies, the Broad Street Angels.

It has pledged to help members locate and invest in "qualified, early-stage enterprises in Greater Philadelphia as a means of growing the region's economy, retaining and attracting talent and fostering innovations that strengthen our civic infrastructure."

Chair of the Broad Street Angels is RoseAnn Rosenthal, who also heads the mostly state-funded Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Southeastern Pennsylvania investment fund.

Vice chair is Bob Ciaruffoli, former head of the Parente Beard accounting firm, now part of Baker Tilley; secretary is Katherine O'Neill, boss at JumpStart New Jersey Angel Network; and treasurer is Haddonfield insurance broker John Rigaut.