Pembroke VCT exit of PEAK:AIO and expected 6%-9% NAV increase
In September 2026, Pembroke VCT announced its profitable exit of PEAK:AIO, a pioneering AI-optimised storage startup. The company agreed to be acquired by NetApp, a US-based data infrastructure giant.
Founded in 2021, PEAK:AIO is a software company building ultra-fast storage systems for AI workloads. Its innovations help organisations deploy AI faster and more cost-effectively by streamlining bottlenecks in storage.
Pembroke VCT invested £3.7 million as part of a seed funding round in October 2025.
The details of the transaction haven’t been disclosed. That said, it was reported that the acquisition valued PEAK:AIO at over £150 million. Separately, following the acquisition Pembroke VCT announced it expects an unaudited NAV increase of 6% to 9%.
This is Pembroke’s first exit from a technology investment. Previous exits include N Family Club for 2.9x and Secret Food Tours (partial exit) for 5.3x. Past performance is not a guide to the future; there have also been failures.
What does PEAK:AIO do? Why did Pembroke invest? And how might you invest in similar companies?
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What does PEAK:AIO do?
Organisations are increasingly adopting AI to process large amounts of data, ranging from statistical modelling to medical imaging. As projects scale, so does the demand for AI performance.
Broadly speaking, AI performance is determined by compute (how quickly data is analysed) and storage (the scale and speed at which data is delivered). Currently, compute performance surpasses storage, resulting in a bottleneck where storage cannot feed data fast enough whilst compute resources sit idle.
The available storage solutions tend to be largely enterprise-size – much too expensive for organisations running small-to-mid-scale setups, which 90% of AI projects run on.
Mark Klarzynski founded PEAK:AIO in 2021 to address this underserved market.
The Manchester-based company builds storage systems designed for mid-scale AI deployments, offering ultra-low-latency to keep compute constantly fed with data and stripping away the unnecessary features that come with enterprise-size solutions. This helps organisations improve utilisation and speed whilst staying cost-effective.
The founder, storage veteran Mark Klarzynski, was initially CEO but later elected to serve as Chief Strategy Officer to focus on technology and strategy, reflecting a philosophy of constant innovation in a pioneering industry. In May 2024, seasoned entrepreneur Roger Cummings was appointed as CEO to drive international growth, which saw PEAK:AIO expand to the US to serve the Los Alamos National Laboratory, one of the world’s most advanced scientific institutions.
Other notable customers include the British Government, the NHS and the Zoological Society of London.
PEAK:AIO's growth and innovation eventually caught the eye of NetApp, a US-based leader in data infrastructure and storage. What was initially outreach from NetApp quickly turned into talks of acquiring PEAK:AIO, culminating in the announcement of the acquisition in September 2026.
"What excites us most about joining NetApp is the opportunity to pair our culture of innovation with the reach, scale, and customer trust of a global leader."
Why did Pembroke VCT invest?
Pembroke VCT led a £5 million funding round (contributing £3.7 million) in PEAK:AIO in October 2025.
Pembroke invested on the strength of PEAK:AIO’s team with deep domain expertise. Of its three co-founders, Mark Klarzynski helped pioneer software-defined storage in 2000 and introduced frameworks still licensed across enterprise storage today – he has worked alongside VP Engineering Mark Ruijter since 2010. PEAK:AIO's CTO Eyal Lemberger also consults for NVIDIA, whilst CEO Roger Cummings brings deep global growth expertise – including six exits to IBM, AWS and Hitachi.
Pembroke believes PEAK:AIO directly addresses a critical “bottleneck” in the AI sector, namely data storage, in a market where tech giants like Google, Meta and Microsoft are committing hundreds of billions to AI infrastructure to help scale AI more cost-effectively and sustainably.
Pembroke’s investment was intended to support PEAK:AIO’s global expansion, particularly into the US market – as well as to help grow the technical team and to accelerate platform development.
This investment exited in September 2026 when PEAK:AIO agreed to be acquired by NetApp, a US-based data infrastructure company, for an undisclosed amount. However, it was reported that the acquisition valued PEAK:AIO at over £150 million.
How might you invest in similar companies?
Pembroke VCT is currently open for investment – you can apply online and get exposure to companies like PEAK:AIO – though not PEAK:AIO itself.
Pembroke VCT holds investments in over 45 companies across sectors the team knows well: mainly consumer, B2B business services and technology.
The VCT has net assets of £286 million (March 2026). To date, it has achieved six full and partial exits, generating proceeds of £42.1 million against a cost of £12.4 million.
In the 10 years to June 2026, the VCT has produced a NAV total return (including dividends) of 42.0% (1.5% over five years). Past performance is not a guide to the future. The VCT targets an annual dividend of 5p per share – not guaranteed.
See performance of Pembroke VCT
Source: Morningstar. Past performance is no guide to the future. Dividends are variable and not guaranteed. The bar chart shows net asset value and cumulative dividends per share for the period 31/12/2020 – 30/06/2026.
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Alex Davies
Founder and CEO
Alex was a board director at Hargreaves Lansdown, where he worked for 15 years. He was responsible for building Hargreaves Lansdown into the biggest direct-to-consumer SIPP provider in the UK with more than 150,000 clients and over £12 billion under management. He is a keen investor with a portfolio of shares, funds, student property, EIS and VCT investments.