Darktrace

A British cybersecurity company, founded in Cambridge, that uses self-learning AI to spot and respond to cyber-attacks. Founded in 2013 and now privately owned.

About Darktrace

Darktrace is a British cybersecurity company that uses artificial intelligence to protect organisations from cyber-attacks. Instead of relying only on lists of known threats, its software learns what normal looks like for each network, device and user, a "pattern of life", and flags activity that looks unusual. Its Antigena technology can take action automatically against an attack in progress. Its website says it serves more than 10,000 customers.

Darktrace was founded in 2013 in Cambridge, UK. Wikipedia says it was set up by mathematicians and cyber-defence experts at Invoke Capital, a company owned by Mike Lynch, and many early leaders came from the Cambridge software firm Autonomy, including Poppy Gustafsson, Jack Stockdale and Nicole Eagan. Stockdale, the founding chief technology officer, built the mathematical models behind the technology and holds an OBE. The company's Cambridge team won Royal Academy of Engineering MacRobert Innovation Awards in 2017 and 2019. Gustafsson was chief executive until September 2024; Ed Jennings became chief executive in March 2026. Darktrace was listed on the London Stock Exchange from 2021 and has been privately owned by Thoma Bravo since October 2024.

We did not find a formal Darktrace mission statement on the pages we read. What the company says it does is defend organisations against threats, including previously unseen ones, using self-learning AI.

It is headquartered in Cambridge, where its AI Research Centre is based, with offices in London, San Francisco and Singapore, and a second research and development centre in The Hague. Its products cover network detection, autonomous response, email security, and protection across cloud and on-site systems. A Threat Visualiser interface shows analysts what is happening on a network. Darktrace also took part in the NCSC's CyberFirst scheme: in 2021 it launched an eight-week UK internship for university students in London and Cambridge, covering foundation cyber training and how its AI detects and responds to real threats.

Its Early Careers Program is aimed at school leavers, with no degree required. It is a full-time, paid and permanent Cyber Analyst trainee role lasting 18 months. It starts with 12 weeks of structured training, then three months of self-led learning, then two-month rotations across Security Operations Centre work, detection engineering and consultancy, and finally four months on secondments in other teams. Roles are hybrid, with two to three office days a week, and each new hire gets a mentor. The process is an application review, a 30-minute recruiter call, a competency-based interview and an in-person assessment day. The page does not give pay, so check the advert. It describes business-casual offices and optional social events, which are the company's own description. Later paths include sales, solutions engineering, customer success and incident management.

What they do

• {'desc': 'Learns normal behaviour to spot unusual activity.', 'title': 'Network detection'}
• {'desc': 'Antigena takes action against attacks in progress.', 'title': 'Autonomous response'}
• {'desc': 'Protects against malicious and suspicious email.', 'title': 'Email security'}
• {'desc': '18-month paid Cyber Analyst trainee route for school leavers.', 'title': 'Early Careers Program'}

Key facts

• Founded 2013 in Cambridge, UK
• Headquarters Cambridge; offices in London, San Francisco, Singapore; R&D centre in The Hague
• Founding CTO Jack Stockdale OBE; Ed Jennings chief executive since March 2026
• Early Careers Program: 18 months, paid, no degree required, hybrid
• Privately owned since October 2024 (Thoma Bravo)

Website: darktrace.com