BT buys into Scottish start-up

BRITISH TELECOM has taken a shareholding in a small Scottish technology company in a move that heralds a new approach by the telephone giant towards investing in start-up enterprises. BT is taking a 14 per cent stake in Kymata, a company which was only set up in February, in return for some of its patents.

Kymata, which in August received pounds 1m in start-up capital from the venture capital group 3i, is in the process of developing telecoms technology that can expand the amount of information that can be carried across fibre- optic cables.