Google acquires Punchd and Vancouver investor's fast $50K cheque pays off

InitioGroup is a Vancouver based early stage investment fund led by Mike Edwards and focused on consumer Internet and mobile opportunities. Edwards believes that actions speak louder than words and he's been living up to the promise on the homepage of his website - "We write checks. Fast."

In April Edwards attended 500Startups Demo Day in Silicon Valley and whipped out his chequebook and invested $150K in three of the 500 Startups accelerator companies on the spot - CrowdRally, Punchd and Rewardli.

Yesterday Punchd announced that they have been acquired Google. Word on the street is that the purchase price was $10 Million.

Punchd is a digital loyalty card service for iPhone and Android platforms that was founded by Reed Morse and Grantland Chew while in class at California Polytechnic State University in 2010. By early 2011, the six-man team was accepted into the first batch of Dave McClure’s 500 Startups program and six months later they're working for Google.

Nice call Mike.

Edwards is also an investor in Vancouver startups Summify, Compass Engine, and Food.ee as well as new seed accelerator GrowLab.