ICC Venture Capital has invested £2 million (€2.5 million) to take a 14 per cent shareholding in Torc Telecom, the international pre-paid telecoms company.
The investment is being made by the ICC Private Equity Fund, set up last April with a fund of £100 million for investment in private companies.
Torc Telecom was established in October 1997 and began trading in April 1998. The Dublin-based company now employs more than 40 people in Ireland, Britain, France and Germany and will shortly begin operations in Spain, Italy and Portugal.
Sales this year are expected to exceed £10 million, 20 times last year's levels, with 85 per cent of revenues generated outside the Republic.
In particular, the capital injection will allow it to fund ambitious expansion plans, according to chief executive and founder Mr Mark Roden.
Torc's call cards allow customers to make long-distance telephone calls and promise savings of up to 80 per cent on hotel phone charges, up to 60 per cent on most European pay-phones and up to 50 per cent on mobile roaming charges.
