The funding is from London-based investment bank and venture capitalist (VC) Noble, which joins five other European and international VC investors in the business.

Paris-based Ipanema, which helps large corporations manage their wide area networks, claims to have grown by an annualised 60 per cent for the past three years.

Says CEO Jean-Yves Leclerc, ‘Raising these additional funds is a key element of our plan to drastically increase the presence of the company not only in Europe but also in North America and Asia.’

Ipanema has partnerships with companies including British Telecom, France Telecom and Swisscom. Its other investors are 3i, Vertex Venture Holdings, Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein, Net Partners and Cipio Partners.