The company is looking to grow its global install base of web-to-print software, which currently stands at around 1,500 customers, operating from more than 2,000 production sites.

In doing so, it will stake its claim in a market that – in Europe alone – is expected to register growth of 264% over the next two years, reaching a value of €10.5bn (£8.3bn) by 2010.

James Gray, managing director of Press-sense's UK distributor Transeo Media, said: "It's still a growing market and we're expecting to see very strong uptake of iWay 5.0 when it's released later this year. That is going to be a big turning point in terms of orders.

"Press-sense has invested heavily in the product – they're not the small company they were six or seven years ago – they're up to something like 160 staff and they've got some really good people."

The loan, which brings Press-sense's total financing to date to $15.5m, comes hot on the heels of last month's Drupa, at which the company strengthened its grip on the web-to-print market.

HP revealed at the show that it was using the Israel-based company's iWay 5.0 as the foundation for its SmartStream Director job submission and management tools.

Ken Whild, European sales manager at Press-sense, said: "We've just recently signed the HP deal and the venture capital we've secured is about supporting the continued growth of the business."

In addition to HP, Press-sense signed deals with Infoprint Solutions and Presstek at the show, which, together with industry giants Océ and Xerox, took its total OEM partners to five.