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Invoke Capital
Invoke Capital Partners was founded by Dr Mike Lynch and a group of technology experts, with access to $1bn in capital. The firm focuses on scaling European...
Invoke Capital
Invoke Capital Partners was founded by Dr Mike Lynch and a group of technology experts, with access to $1bn in capital. The firm focuses on scaling European fundamental technology companies across multiple markets. Based in Cambridge, UK, Invoke has a dedicated in-house R&D division and has grown multiple technology businesses, particularly in science and technology areas such as genomics, security, and big data.
General information
Firm type
Private Equity
Year founded
2015
Location
Region
Europe
Country
United Kingdom
City
London
Corporate office
London, United Kingdom
Principals
Mike Lynch
Founder
Sector focus
Frequently asked questions
Who runs investment decisions at Invoke Capital?
Founder Mike Lynch has been the central decision-maker since the firm's launch in 2015. Lynch is a Cambridge-trained engineer who founded and led Autonomy, a large enterprise search company, from 1996 through its 2011 sale to HP for $11 billion. He has not publicly designated a formal investment committee or disclosed whether outside partners carry voting authority on Invoke's commitments.
How is Invoke Capital related to Darktrace?
Invoke Capital was the founding investor in Darktrace when the cybersecurity company launched in 2013, with Mike Lynch becoming its chairman. Invoke provided initial seed funding and participated in subsequent rounds before Darktrace listed on the London Stock Exchange in 2021. Lynch and his affiliates maintained a significant equity position through and beyond the IPO.
Is Invoke Capital structured as a family office or a traditional venture firm?
Invoke operates as a hybrid. It primarily deploys Mike Lynch's personal capital from the Autonomy sale, which classifies it as a single-family office. However, it has organized co-investment vehicles that brought institutional investors into select early-stage rounds, giving it some characteristics of a venture capital firm without a formal fund structure.
Which sectors and stages does Invoke Capital target?
Invoke concentrates on applied artificial intelligence and enterprise software companies from pre-seed through growth stages. Its portfolio spans pattern-recognition tools for legal work, clinical genomics diagnostics, and autonomous cybersecurity defense systems. The firm has not publicly disclosed sectors it explicitly avoids.
Where does the underlying wealth come from?
The capital originates from Mike Lynch's proceeds of the 2011 sale of Autonomy to Hewlett-Packard. Lynch received roughly $800 million for his stake, a transaction that later became the subject of extended civil litigation and criminal fraud proceedings in the UK and the United States.
Does Invoke Capital invest in funds or only make direct deals?
Invoke primarily executes direct equity investments rather than committing to external funds. The firm leads seed and early-stage rounds itself and has syndicated follow-on financing alongside institutional co-investors, but no fund-of-funds allocation strategy has been publicly documented.
What is Invoke's known posture on co-investments alongside external GPs?
Invoke has historically welcomed co-investors on a deal-by-deal basis, bringing institutional capital like Talis Capital and institutional VCs into rounds for Darktrace and Luminance. The firm does not market itself as a GP-led syndication platform, nor does it publish co-investment criteria.
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