Well-placed software industry sources have indicated that Dublin-headquartered firm Propylon is to receive a multimillion euro investment from US venture capital firm Fidelity Ventures. The deal could be valued at up to €27 million.
Propylon was established in Sligo in 1999. Almost uniquely among Irish software companies it has won a number of high-profile contracts from the Government, including the development of a framework to allow different Government agencies to share information online.
Propylon applies its expertise in the XML language to its Legislative Workbench suite of applications, which assists parliamentarians in the creation, amendment, translation and publishing of legislative documents.
Its primary market is the US, where it has won multimillion dollar deals with state legislatures, including Pennsylvania, which signed a deal worth €6 million in 2004.
Earlier this year, chief executive Paul McKeon predicted the company would have sales of €10 million in 2006. It employs over 60 people at offices in Dublin, New York and Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. At that time, Mr McKeon said the company was looking at other niche markets.
If confirmed, this would be Fidelity's third significant investment in an Irish software company. Last year it led a $10 million (€7.5 million) funding round in Cork-based Qumas, which develops software to help the life sciences and financial services sectors comply with industry regulations. Fidelity invested $10.5 million in Curam Software in 2002. Curam develops software to help governments worldwide administer social welfare.
Propylon's chief technology officer, Seán McGrath, is considered an international expert in XML technology and sat on committee of internet standards body W3C that developed the XML 1.0 standard in 1998.
Mr McKeon did not return calls to The Irish Timesto confirm or deny the reports yesterday.
