Exciting growth plans are set to become a reality for a voice, video and data conference company following investment by South West Ventures Fund.

VQ Communica-tions Ltd has secured £250,000 from the fund, which was established to make venture capital available to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) with high-growth potential in the south west.

The company, based in Chippenham, develops easy to use voice, video and data communications services which make conferencing a simple process and deliver productivity increases to organisations of every size.

Development of the VQ Conferencing platform, which uses best of breed' hardware and software products, began in 2001 and over the last six months the company has been successfully rolling out its product to banking, health and learning business sectors across the UK, Europe and USA.

VQ Communica-tions aims to sign up more than 10,000 users in the first two years and to secure a significant share of the rapidly expanding market for web conferencing.

As well as significant personal investments from VQ Communication's directors and shareholders, funding was also secured from external private investors.

This, coupled with the capital from South West Ventures Fund, will be used to establish the VQ products in the national and international market.