Irish software company Mapflow has just secured an investment of $5.1 million (€3.86 million) from US investor SOSventures Investments, with the company to receive another $6.6 million if certain key goals are achieved.

Mapflow chief executive Richard Bryce said the new funds would be used primarily for research and development of a new product based on global positioning system technology.

He said the milestones Mapflow needed to achieve to trigger the additional funding were very "reasonable and considered".

Mr Bryce said that, following the investment, 10 staff would be added to the company, to bring total employment to 40. He said the investment would enable the company to scale more quickly and move into international markets.

To date Mapflow has predominantly sold into the Irish and British markets.

It recently won a €250,000 deal with the British unit of American insurance giant St Paul Travelers which enables the insurer to assess the likely exposure of property to a range of risks.

Hibernian Insurance also uses Mapflow's software in a similar fashion while AA Ireland uses it to manage the 120,000 breakdown call-outs it receives each year.

As a result of the new investment, Trinity Venture Capital, an early backer of Mapflow, has sold its shares in the company. Co-founder Simon Dick and company chairman Stephen Cloonan have also sold their shares and resigned from the board.

SOSventures is the investment vehicle of Seán O'Sullivan, a co-founder of Nasdaq-quoted MapInfo, a US company widely credited with popularising geographic information systems which enable organisations to get more value out of data from maps.

Mr O'Sullivan has subsequently founded or invested in more than 20 other technology start-ups and took up residence in Ireland last year.

Although he declined to reveal what valuation the new investment put on the company, Mr Bryce said Mapflow had been profitable for the last three years with earnings of €300,000 for the year to the end of March 2006.