$50m for Central European MANs

The Central European telecom-munications service provider etel Group received $50 million of venture funding at the end of November. Dresdner Kleinwort Benson Private Equity (since renamed Dresdner Kleinwort Capital) led the round, investing from its new Emerging Europe Fund. etel’s other backers were Argus Capital Partners, Greenhill Capital Partners and Intel Capital. ING Baring advised etel on the fund raising.

The company will use the new funding to establish state-of-the art fibre optic Metropolitan Area Networks (MANs) in Prague, Budapest and Warsaw, extending to seven other cities in the region and linked to etel’s Frankfurt gateway facility. etel offers bundled voice, data and ISP services to corporate customers in Central Europe, where demand for such services is growing in the context of the recent deregulation of the telecoms market.

The planned MAN network will represent one of the most advanced telecommunications infrastructures in Central Europe.