DH Kass, Senior Contributing Blogger

February 12, 2013

2 Min Read
Former Autonomy Chief Raises $1B for British IT Startups

Mike Lynch, the former Autonomy founder now mired in a well-publicized and confounding accounting (and potentially litigious) flap with Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: HPQ), has raised $1 billion to buy into fledgling British IT companies through his new investment capital fund, which he kicked off last October.

According to a report in the U.K.’s The Telegraph, Lynch has enlisted the assistance of some of his ex-Autonomy buddies, including former finance chief Sushovan Hussain, to join him at Invoke Capital fund, which already has invested in Featurespace, a security software developer. The fund also is backed by institutional investors and other money.

Invoke Capital’s sparse, two-page web indicates that the venture capital firm has taken stakes in Etalk, a speech recognition company; Verity, an enterprise search provider; Zantaz, a technology compliance firm; and Interwoven, a web content management provider; and the digital arm of data protection vendor Iron Mountain.

The Telegraph report suggested that Invoke is also buying into established businesses and using their infrastructures to help smaller technology companies develop products.

As for the status of his dealings with HP, Lynch posted on his web site dedicated to responding to the charges and counter charges, that the U.K.’s Financial Reporting Council is investigating Autonomy’s finances from January 1, 2009, to June 30, 2011. In a blog post statement, Lynch wrote:

“We note the announcement by the UK’s Financial Reporting Council (FRC) that it has begun an investigation of the financial reporting of Autonomy for the period from 1 January 2009 to 30 June 2011. As a member of the FTSE 100 the accounts of Autonomy have previously been reviewed by the FRC, including during the period in question, and no actions or changes were recommended or required.

“We welcome this investigation. Autonomy received unqualified audit reports throughout its life as a public company. This includes the period in question, during which Autonomy was audited by Deloitte. We are fully confident in the financial reporting of the company and look forward to the opportunity to demonstrate this to the FRC.”

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DH Kass

Senior Contributing Blogger, The VAR Guy

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