Intune Networks, an Irish firm that has claimed to have solved issues of internet speed and quality, plans to hire 80 people and raise up to €10 million in funding in 2010.
The company has 120 staff in Dublin and Belfast, and is preparing to launch its product, a highly-technical internet switch built using laser technologies.
Tim Fritzley, chief executive of Intune, said that the firm was bullish about the future after solving a problem that other companies had spent decades and ‘‘upwards of $1 billion’’ trying to resolve.
He said he expected Intune to ultimately employ ‘‘several thousand’’ people and have revenues running to hundreds of millions of euro a year.
Late last year, the firm raised €22 million from investors led by Dermot Desmond and Kernel Capital. Three international funders invested almost €13 million in Intune in 2007.
Fritzley said that 2010 was ‘‘off to a very fast start’’ for the company, which was founded ten years ago.
‘‘I am very hopeful for a banner year for our product launch and first adopters [of the product]. I think the timing is very good for the commercial release," he said.
Intune will face competition from big firms such as Cisco and Alcatel-Lucent, but Fritzley claimed that the Irish company’s product was cheaper and better than competing products. He said that Intune could be built towards a stock market listing.
‘‘We will start to make decisions about which path to follow later this year, or early in 2011," he said.
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