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: