Irish venture capital firms have been criticised for failing to think on a big enough scale. The comments come from a founder of an Irish technology firm that has just received $17.75 million (€13.2 million) from international backers.

John Dunne, chief marketing officer with Intune Networks, says the company owes its survival to continued support from Enterprise Ireland but says it did not approach Irish venture capital operations for its current round as it felt the scale of its ambition would scare them away.

A spokesman for the Irish Venture Capital Association says it does not comment on ind-vidual company fundings but points out that in the last few years, there have been at least six investments in the €10-€20 million scale, including companies such as AGI Therapeutics, Merrion Pharmaceuticals and Gas Sensing Solutions.

Intune has shipped products to a variety of industries, including oil exploration, aerospace and electronics manufacturing, but Mr Dunne says the new funding will enable it to apply its breakthroughs in laser technology to products for the telecoms sector.

Last August, Intune recruited Tim Fritzley, a senior executive in Microsoft's IP TV division, as chief executive.

Mr Dunne says InTune products which are under development will enable telecommunications companies to better manage their networks as they become conduits for a range of entertainment services, in addition to voice traffic.

"The carriers need to guarantee services on the network with the same quality as TV," says Mr Dunne. "They have to be able to guarantee quality of service for voice, data, television and mobile services, but they can't just keep adding bandwidth, as that gets too complex to manage."

Intune has made advances in the area of tunable lasers which mean that operators can respond to peaks in demand from different parts of their fibre optic networks at different times.

Mr Dunne and Tom Farrell, chief technology officer, co-founded the company in 1999 having worked on EU-funded optoelectronics projects in DCU which gave them access to leading-edge technology in the area.

They initially struggled to find funding until seed capital was provided by angel investors Leonard Donnelly and Chris McHugh.

Mr Donnelly was reported to have a 10 per cent stake in Euristix when it was sold to Fore Systems in 1999 for $81 million, while Mr McHugh is a former finance director with Dermot Desmond's IIU.

They subsequently attracted early stage venture funding from ICC Ventures and UK firm 3i, but it is Enterprise Ireland that Mr Dunne really credits with keeping the firm afloat during the early years of the decade.

The company now employs 35 people. Mr Dunne says the new funding from European technology specialists Amadeus Capital Partners, Balderton Capital (formerly known as Benchmark Capital Europe) and Boston's Spark Capital, will enable it to increase its workforce to 50 by the end of the year.

"This is an Irish company that has a background in a niche area which makes it difficult for other companies to compete against," says Mr Dunne.

"It has taken eight years to get to this stage, but that is the only way you are going to develop potentially market leading companies in Ireland."