Former Esat Digifone chief executive Barry Maloney is one of seven partners in the rebranded breakaway fund, one of the largest VCs in Europe, and certainly the largest with a tech sector focus.

Maloney told the Sunday Tribune that Balderton's aim will be to invest in earlyand later-stage companies with a view to floating them on major European exchanges such as Milan, Frankfurt and London.

"There's plenty of liquidity in EU markets and we never have the conversation anymore on whether a European tech firm has the potential to be a Nasdaq IPO candidate, " he said. "There's also the fact that SarbanesOxley is a pain in the arse, " he added.

In a separate interview earlier this year, Maloney told the Sunday Tribune that the VC firm had a philosophy of "spray and pray" - small investments in dozens of companies.

He added that the strategy had moved away from capital-intensive businesses such as semiconductors and enterprise software vendors, where it might take "$40m to $50m to know whether it has anything that will work or not".

With new consumer-facing businesses, an investment of $3m to $4m would be enough to get a reasonable view of a business' longterm viability.

In looking for companies to invest in he seeks to "back an entrepreneur that can build a global business - not always easy to find in the Irish market - someone who can grow the company through the first stage."

He agreed there was a tendency for European entrepreneurs to sell too early, a frustration voiced in private by people in Enterprise Ireland. "There's a tendency to start a business, get it going, and someone comes in with $40m. They grab the money and head to the beach."

Maloney reckoned that, excluding Google, in the last three to four years, there had been more technology IPOs in Europe than in the US in the billion-plus category.

This weekend Maloney said Balderton is also interested in 'clean-technology' environmental firms, and pointed to a recent Benchmark investment in NBA Polymers, a firm which recycles plastics to create new resources cheaper than the production of virgin plastic, as an indicator of future direction.

Balderton is understood to be in discussion with at least one Irish start-up concerning a possible investment, but is not seeking any input from Irish high-net worth individuals to contribute to its fund.

"Our last fund was worth Euro550m and that was three times oversubscribed by our existing investors, " said Maloney. The majority of Benchmark/Balderton's capital comes from US private endowments - long-term and stable sources of cash according to Maloney.

Perhaps Balderton's most high profile investment at the moment is in social networking website, Bebo. With expectation rife that Bebo rival Facebook will float with a value of between $5bn and $6bn over the coming months, the reported $15m investment in Bebo looks to become an incredibly lucrative venture for Maloney and co.

The former mobile phone boss confirmed to the Sunday Tribune that Bebo was in talks with an Irish mobile operator, and admitted O2 was his preferred partner. Maloney said his former employer had taken too long to make a decision on a proposed tie-up.

Another potential exit for Balderton is successful open source software firm MySQL, while online betting exchange Betfair is expected to go public in 2008.

Meanwhile Benchmark sold its 67% stake in electronics payment firm Alphyra last month. Differences of opinion over financial performance and future plans as well as a Euro100m fall in equity valuation over a twoyear period are thought to have contributed to the decision to sell.

It is expected that Benchmark's Israeli fund will ultimately become an independent brand based on the Balderton model, he added.

Richard Delevan contributed to this report