IRISH SATELLITE broadband provider Onwave has secured a €4.15 million investment to help fund the company’s expansion across Europe. The investment is being made by Nucleus Venture Partners and follows Onwave’s recent launch of television, phone and high-speed broadband services.

It will also lead to the creation of 30 jobs in the company’s Westmeath headquarters and at its offices in Galway. An office in the UK has also opened recently. The jobs will be in research and development, project management, finance, sales and customer care.

Nucleus is a Galway-based venture capital firm founded last year with a focus on technology start-ups and a commitment to longer-term involvement than most VC investors.

“Without this level of funding we would not be able to undertake the type of aggressive campaign that we’re about to undertake,” said Onwave chief executive Kevin Ryan. “This is coming in to help us grow and do things that would be impossible otherwise, because obviously there’s no funding coming from banks.”

The deal was facilitated by Halo Business Angel Partnership, which lined up a number of investors for the company to pitch to. Mr Ryan said they settled on Nucleus because they could add most value and expertise where gaps existed.

“They can parachute in particular skill sets that allow us to concentrate on what we know and what we can do best,” he said. “We’ve been operating in a niche market over the last few years and we know that is one of our strongest USPs [unique selling propositions].”

Nucleus also took a long-term view and had no set time frame for an exit, he said; nor were they interested in the founders’ exit plan, he added.

Previously known as Satellite Broadband Ireland, Onwave has been in the broadband market since 2008. It rebranded in May and announced a deal with Eutelsat which gave it access to a new satellite called KA-SAT.

As a result, the company can now offer 10mbps broadband along with television and telephone services, potentially across Europe and part of the Middle East. As it is satellite-based, the service can reach areas that cannot receive high-speed broadband by phone or cable.

Mr Ryan said the Eutelsat deal meant the company could now target customers in semi-urban areas as well as the rural market. He said the focus would be on gaining more market share in Ireland and the UK before moving on to other European countries next year.