Desmond among backers as Intune raises €22m in funds

TECHNOLOGY FIRM Intune Networks has closed a €22 million round of funding, which has been led by financier Dermot Desmond and venture capital firm Kernel Capital.

Existing investors Balderton Capital, Amadeus Capital, Spark Capital, as well as unnamed private investors who backed the company during its start-up phase, also participated. State development agencies Enterprise Ireland and Invest NI, which provided support for Intune’s establishment of a £9.27 million research and development centre in Belfast earlier this year, also provided funds.

The funding will support Intune through to the commercial launch of its products and a financial break-even position, chief executive Tim Fritzley told The Irish Times yesterday.

The company has focused on the European market to date – it has three telecommunications companies trialling its technology – but the funding will see it move into North America and Asia.

Intune has developed a laser-based technology called Optical Packet Switch and Transport, which allows significantly more traffic to be sent over existing fibre-optic networks using different coloured lights.

It was founded in Dublin in 1999 by UCD graduates John Dunne and Tom Farrell.

Following the latest round of investment, Niall Olden, chief executive of Kernel Capital, will join the board of Intune Networks. Mr Fritzley said Mr Desmond has the right to appoint a director.

Mr Fritzley said the current fundraising environment was the worst he had seen in 30 years working in the technology sector.

“We were getting great feedback from investors but getting them to sign on the dotted line was another matter,” he said.

Intune employs 120 staff in Dublin and Belfast.

Mr Fritzley, a former senior executive with Microsoft in the US, said another 20 staff were likely to be hired in the coming months.

“The speed of our expansion will depend on how quickly carriers deploy the technology,” he said.

Earlier this year, the Government entered into a partnership with Intune to create an “examplar network” to showcase and test broadband technologies.