Mike Edwards and LX Ventures Looking to Expand In Canada

By: Talha Bhatti  |   August 27th, 2013   |   News

Mike Edwards, a Canadian by origin,  recently launched LX Ventures, a venture capital investment firm for new startups in Vancouver,Canada. In 1990, Mike retired and settled in Whistler where he was involved in a number of sports at that time. He was too energetic to retire and launched two restaurants, built some houses and kept up his hobbies. In February 2010, he started planning some new activities for the future and started a high tech incubator and created two venture capita firms: Initio Group and LX ventures.

TechVibes states that, “From his West Hastings office, he runs a startup studio, where 100 people – from students in Launch Academy to revenue-producing startups like Strutta – share office space with Garibaldi Capital Advisors, which recently brokered a $36 million investment in Vancouver’s BroadbandTV.”

Prestigious companies like Microsoft Corporation, Business Development Bank of Canada and Industrial Research Assistance Program (IRAP) have all realized the potential of LX Ventures and have set up or are planning to set up their offices in Mike’s studio. Edward says,“Ultimately my goal is to build a platform, and that platform is a vertically integrated studio to identify and develop early stage, high-growth companies.” So basically Mike Edwards wants to help new startups by providing people who can help each other in developing new ideas or business ventures, a chance to interact.

Mike was unable to complete his studies and took up pro bike racing as a career for four years until 1997 when his son was born. Then he started a bike importing business from California and later on, from France. He started having trouble selling these expensive bikes because he didn’t know his customers well and that was the time that he developed a website and sold bikes using this method in 1997. In 1998, he moved back to Whistler and developed a virtual market for film distribution rights called Internetstudios.com. Through this venture, he raised a large amount of money and the company’s value also escalated. After that, he hired professionals to run the company and it crashed.

Regarding this, Edwards said: “My learning on that is two things: Don’t give Internet money to Hollywood executives – they can spend money like no one can. My second, more important learning was I didn’t have to replace myself – I was just as smart as those people.” In 2002, he  became one of the the partners for AreaConnect, a search engine and worked hard to raise its value. The partners then sold the company in 2006 at a value of $17.5 million. After this he left the internet business and took up being an investor for startup companies.

“In October last year, Edwards bought out the failing LX Ventures and relaunched it as an early-stage venture capital firm, with a portfolio of 12 companies. “I didn’t want to be a venture capitalist – I wanted to be a business builder,” he said. “So I created a vehicle that is very similar to Betaworks in New York. I invest in, I acquire and I build early-stage technology companies.”

Because his company is public limited,he has both cash and stock available to him. Being a pubic market company gives Edwards many advantages that he could not have availed if he was a venture capitalist for example he is not under the pressure to raise money so much and the need to sell assets.

 

Source: TechVibes

Image: TechVibes