Swiss telecoms provider Swisscom has led a $5 million (£3.4 million) funding round into Firecomms, a provider of high-speed plastic optical fibre components headquartered in Ireland.

Swiss telecoms provider Swisscom has led a $5 million (£3.4 million) funding round into Firecomms, a provider of high-speed plastic optical fibre components headquartered in Ireland.

The privately held company based in Cork said the funding “validates its home working technology” and that it would enable Firecomms to expand its business with telecommunication companies around the world.

The funding was also backed by Alps Electric, a group of 83 companies that includes Alpine, a provider of mobile media services, which has a long-standing relationship with the Irish firm.

Investment bank GP Bullhound and Firecomms’ existing investors Atlantic Bridge, ACT Venture Finance and Enterprise Ireland also contributed to the round.

“As an adopter of Firecomms’ IPTV interconnect technology, Swisscom has first-hand experience of the advantages of plastic optical fibre in the home,” said Declan O’Mahoney, Firecomms’ CEO.

Firecomms develops high-speed light sources in visible wavelengths. Its lasers and LEDs enable low-cost, high-speed optical data transmission and data capture using visible light.