Broadworks, a new cable television company based in Dublin, said yesterday it had raised €2 million to fund its expansion.

The firm, which already has 6,000 residential customers in Dublin, said it would use the cash to develop its business. It plans to have more than 20,000 customers by the end of 2006.

A company specialising in mergers and acquisitions, Montaigne Investment Malta Ltd, provided most of the funds. The remainder was raised by several Irish businessmen including Mr Frank Walsh, a former chairman of Anglo Irish Bank, and Mr Louis Fitzgerald, a director of alternative energy firm Airtricity.

Broadworks said it had also raised debt finance.

Broadworks was founded by Mr Steve Keaveney, a former chief financial officer of Irish cable company CMI, which was bought by Chorus in the 1990s.

It deploys its cable system by teaming up with property developers that are building new estates and laying a fibre optic cable system in parallel with the construction work of the estate.

The fibre optic cable offers a range of television and broadband internet services. Broadworks is also testing a telephone systems using VOIP (voice over internet protocol) technology to offer cheap calls.

Mr Keaveney said the television service offers 20 channels, including all the domestic channels, BBC channels, UTV and Channel 4. He said that, within two years, it planned to have 20,000 customers in Dublin.

Broadworks has a number of leading Irish property developers as clients such as Menolly Homes, Manor Park Homes, Cannon & Kirk and Maplewood Developments.

Broadworks is just one of a number of new cable firms to emerge in recent years. Another rival to the big cable operators NTL and Chorus, Magnet Networks, said last week it was building a fibre cable connecting 10,000 homes.