Autonomy founder Mike Lynch makes new investment in Featurespace

Former Autonomy CEO puts his fortune to good use

Former Autonomy CEO Mike Lynch, who was acrimoniously dismissed as Autonomy boss months after its £6.23bn acquisition by HP, has extended his investment in predictive analytics firm Featurespace.

Cambridge-based Featurespace was launched in 2005 and offers customers interaction data through the deployment of event-based analytics for risk management or marketing purposes.

The company, whose customers include online betting exchange BetFair, was set up by Professor William Fitzgerald, professor of applied statistics at Cambridge, with his protégé David Excell.

The link between Lynch and the company extends from the fact that he was also supervised by Fitzgerald.

Featurespace announced that it had raised a further round of funding worth £1.5m from a collection of investors, including Lynch and new investor Imperial Innovations Group.

"We are already gaining good customer traction with our products, and this investment enables us to further build our team and sales capability to support our growing business through the next stage of our development," said Excell, who is now CEO of Featurespace.

Susan Searle, CEO of Imperial Innovations Group, added: "This is our second investment in a Cambridge technology company and is an exciting opportunity for Bill Fitzgerald, a proven expert in this field. The strength of the investment syndicate for Featurespace is a great endorsement of Featurespace's solutions and the strength of the management team."

Other original investors include charitable body NESTA and high-net-worth investors groups Cambridge Angels and Cambridge Capital Group.

It was widely expected when Lynch left HP in May that he would remain active in the computer industry - not least putting the fortune acquired as a result of Autonomy's sale to HP to good use in the technology industry in and around Cambridge.