Telecoms equipment supplier Intune Networks has secured €22m in its most recent funding round.
Businessman Dermot Desmond and venture capital firm Kernel Capital were the lead investors, with additional funding provided by existing investors Balderton, Amadeus, Spark Capital and long term private investors.
Enterprise Ireland and Invest Northern Ireland also participated in the funding round to support the company's growth in both Dublin and Belfast.
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Intune currently employs 120 people and has design centres in Dublin and Belfast. The company, established in 1999, has developed the world's first programmable fibre optic platform. This allows high quality, on-demand and interactive internet services which uses up to 7%% less energy than current networks.
The firm is leading the Government's programme to build Ireland's Smart Network in July 2009.
The funding round is the largest private equity investment in the global telecoms optical equipment sector this year. It is also the largest private equity investment in the European telecoms equipment sector and the third largest in the European IT sector this year.
Intune's CEO Tim Fritzley said the funding will be used for the company's full commercial product launch by the middle of next year as well as expanding market coverage beyond the European carriers on into North America and Asia.
'I have given my support because we are firmly of the view that Intune Networks has developed a disruptive technology that will change the way that telecommunications services are delivered,' commented Dermot Desmond.
'More innovation of this kind will help to reinvigorate the North and South economies,' he added.