Delta Partners, the Dublin-based venture capital group, has invested £1 million sterling (€1.6 million) in E-commend, a British Internet company that matches house owners and builders. This will give Delta a stake of just under one-third of the company.

E-commend, founded by chief executive officer Mr Marshall King, a graduate of Dublin University, plans to raise a further £10 million in the first quarter of this year. This, he told The Irish Times, would come from a number of venture capitalists, giving them 20 to 30 per cent of the enlarged company.

Delta has a £30 million fund with a focus on early stage technology companies. It said it had made 25 investments in Irish, British and German technology companies since 1995.