KERRY entrepreneur Jerry Kennelly, who sold his Stockbyte imaging business to US-based Getty Images two years ago for $135m (€110m at the time), is preparing to launch a major new online venture backed by a multimillion euro investment.

Mr Kennelly has hired 15 staff, about half of whom are former Stockbyte employees, for the new Killorglin-based company, the details of which he declined to elaborate on yesterday when contacted by the Irish Independent.

He confirmed the business will be an online one and will have an international focus, but would not reveal the extent of the financial investment he’s injecting into it. It is his first new corporate enterprise since selling Stockbyte. He has spent the past two years largely devoted to philanthropic endeavours including the production of a 2009 calendar for the Goal charity.

He added that he and his team are currently conducting market research and expect to unveil the venture in the second half of 2009.

Mr Kennelly founded Stockbyte in 1996, having previously established newspaper photographic agency Newsfax.

He secured a £650,000 (€825,000) investment from Dublin-based ACT Venture Capital for a 30pc stake in Stockbyte. He bought back that stake in 2003 at an undisclosed price.

Giants

Stockbyte grew rapidly, with its royalty-free database of images used by outfits such as advertising giant Saatchi & Saatchi and Newsweek. By 2006, it was on target to generate a pre-tax profit of more than €10m.

In 2005, Mr Kennelly engaged Ernst & Young to carry out an appraisal of the business to determine its value and subsequently decided to put it up for sale.

Up to 15 venture capital and private equity firms are believed to have expressed an interest in acquiring Stockbyte and its sister firm Stockdisc.

US-based Getty Images emerged as the successful bidder, resulting in a massive payday for Mr Kennelly and his wife Johanna, who owned the firms in their entirety. However, Mr Kennelly also set aside €5m for staff, each of whom received in the region of €175,000 tax-free.

After it acquired Stockbyte, Getty Images laid off the company’s 28 staff and shifted operations to the US.

Earlier this year, Getty Images, struggling after a slowdown in its business, agreed to a $2.1bn (€1.6bn) takeover bid by private equity firm Hellman & Friedman.