Digital television and telecoms provider Envi is in the process of completing a €2.5 million fund-raising round from private investors.

The company has also announced that former EU Commissioner and Eircom chairman Ray MacSharry is to chair its board.

Envi provides digital television, broadband and telecoms services to new housing and apartment developments around the Republic. It has been in business since early last year.

It is in the last stages of its second round of fund raising. While it has not revealed the amount it intends raising, the figure is believed to be €2.5 million.

Envi is raising the cash from a number of unnamed private investors.

Mr MacSharry is to take up his position immediately, Envi managing director Colm Hayden said yesterday.

"I am confident that his big business experience and leadership qualities will play a significant role in the successful implementation of our ambitious plans," Mr Hayden said.

Mr MacSharry served as EU commissioner for agriculture in the 1990s and saw through the first stages of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) reform. Before that he served as minister for finance in the Fianna Fáil administration that came to power in the 1987 general election.

During his time with Eircom he brought the company from State ownership to privatisation via a stock market flotation in 1999.

He is also a director of Ryanair and the Dermot Desmond-controlled City of London Airport.

Envi, in providing integrated digital TV, telephone, internet and broadband services to new homes, also offers a package known as "triple play" that brings all the elements together.

Mr Hayden said broadband was becoming a mainstream utility for most consumers. However, while there was general interest in broadband among consumers there were difficulties in getting them excited about it. "Unlike selling mobile phones, with broadband there is nothing to touch or feel," he said.