Limerick technology firm secures €2m in funding from syndicate

LIMERICK-BASED technology company Cloudium Systems has secured a €2 million investment from a syndicate comprising Delta Partners, ACT Venture Capital and the AIB Seed Capital Fund, which is co-managed by Enterprise Equity Venture Capital and Enterprise Ireland.

The funding will be used to beef up the hardware and software company’s sales and marketing activities, with up to 25 new jobs expected to be created within 18 months.

Set up in 2009, Cloudium specialises in “rich media applications”, including video CAD (computer-aided design) and real-time imaging for cloud-based clients.

It was founded by John Hickey, Peter Shelley and Jerome Nolan and has a number of US multinationals as clients. The company currently has 14 staff.

“This new funding allows us to grow our sales and marketing team in Dublin and to continue to invest in research and development in Limerick,” Mr Hickey, who is the company’s chief executive, told The Irish Times yesterday.

Mr Hickey said the company had secured a number of new contracts in the “virtual desktop” market, which would generate “significant” revenue for the company in 2013.

He said the company’s revenues are currently “sub-€1 million”.

None of the parties would reveal the value placed on Cloudium on foot of this fundraising.

As part of the investment, Dermot Berkery of Delta has joined the board of Cloudium.

This is Delta's second investment in as many months. In August, it invested €2 million in Irish company WhatClinic.com.

Delta said it expected to invest another €40 million in about 15 Irish companies over the next year or so.