From left: Dr. Daniel McCaughan, Chief Technology Advisor, Kernel Capital and Tim Fritzley, CEO, Intune Networks.

CORK Ireland, 07 March 2011, InTune Networks was announced overall ‘Innovator of the Year’ at the IrishTimes InterTradeIreland Innovation Awards 2011. The Awards were established to recognise the best innovators in indigenous and international companies operating throughout the island of Ireland. More than 120 companies entered this year’s competition in which associate Bank of Ireland Kernel Capital Fund II portfolio company, Decawave also secured a place in the final of the ‘Product Innovation’ category. Intune Networks received the top prize consisting of a communications and advertising package from the Irish Times worth €200,000.

Commenting on the awards, Liam Nellis, InterTradeIreland Chief Executive and Chairman of the final judging panel said: “These awards are designed to recognise the best innovations in businesses across the island of Ireland. Intune Networks is an excellent example of company that is at the pinnacle of innovation. For 30 years, laboratories have attempted to achieve what has been achieved by Intune Networks over the last 4 years by developing a clever piece of Intellectual property that is commercial and scaleable, to speed up the transmission of data on the internet. Intune Networks is an indigenous company that has developed a product with the potential to revolutionise the telecoms industry on a global scale.”

Kernel Capital and International Investment and Underwriting (IIU) co-led a €22m investment in finalist InTune Networks in October 2009. The Dublin based telecoms equipment supplier was later named to lead the Government’s programme to build Ireland’s Exemplar Smart Network, the first step in creating a next generation smart and green communications infrastructure for Ireland. Telecommunications networks are multimegawatt energy consumers however Intune Networks is a new kind of telecommunications network architecture bringing new energy-efficient optical switching technology into the world’s communications networks. The unpredictable traffic demand has put a strain on networks that has resulted in greater demand and Intune Networks' breakthrough technology Optical Packet Switch and Transport (OPST) will help alleviate bottlenecks across systems.



# # #

For further information please contact:
Orla Rimmington, Operations Director, Kernel Capital.
Tel: +353 21 4928974 / Fax: +353 21 4928977

Notes to Editors:

About Kernel Capital
Kernel Capital and its associate Life Science investment firm Seroba Kernel have in excess of €196m under management in six separate Venture Capital funds, investing in ICT, Life Science and general seed and early stage investments. These funds are supported by Enterprise Ireland, Bank of Ireland, University of Limerick Foundation and a range of other financial institutions. They have invested in Kernel Capital's portfolio of 51 companies which collectively employ in excess of 800 people and have been granted 150 scientific patents. Kernel Capital and Seroba Kernel are committed to dynamic, innovative, knowledge based companies and led in excess of €96m in syndicated investment in 2010. Kernel Capital believe that it is an exceptional time for investment and will close a number of transactions in 2011.