THE boom in online shopping has helped technology entrepreneur Dan Wagner raise $20m (£10m) to fund the American expansion of Venda, his fast-growing e-tailing business.

Built partly on technology developed by the infamous Boo.com, Venda offers its customers off-the-peg shopping websites for a flat monthly fee — £5,000 in Britain or $10,000 in America.

Venda’s software has provided a flexible but cost-effective solution for many large companies, including the BBC, Xerox and Panasonic.

Wagner is keen to pursue further opportunities in America, where the company already offers sites to firms such as Neiman Marcus, the luxury goods retailer.

Investor Growth Capital (IGC), the venture-capital arm of the Swedish investment giant Investor, led the latest fundraising, which valued Venda at $100m “pre-money”.

Existing investor GF Private Equity also invested.

Wagner and his family retain a stake of about 40%.

“We’ve been running this on ‘friends and family’ money,” he said. “That’s not realistic at this stage of the business. It’s time to get serious now.”

Growing consumer confidence and the wide availability of broadband internet connections have supported a boom in online shopping. Comscore, an internet data firm, reported on Friday that American consumers spent $21.7 billion online in the 50 days leading up to last Wednesday, a 26% increase over 2005. Comscore has also seen a big increase in the amount of online shopping in Britain.

Wagner, who in the 1990s used to run Maid, a quoted information business, expects Venda’s sales to double during 2007.

In September, Venda ranked 41st on The Sunday Times Tech Track, which lists Britain’s fastest-growing technology companies.

Venda claims to be much cheaper than competitors such as IBM and Microsoft.

IGC’s Noah Walley and Phil Dur will join Venda’s board. Dur, who is based in Silicon Valley, said: “Venda is a pioneer in the e-commerce industry. Leading global retailers and manufacturers rely on Venda to provide an unparalleled e-commerce experience to their customers, at a fraction of the cost of competing solutions.”