MORE than 75 jobs will be created in Pendle, thanks to a £7million investment in a dot com business which made its North West home in Nelson.

Touch Local, an online business directory, employs 26 people in its office at Brunswick House, Brunswick Street, and will be spending some of the cash on quadrupling its workforce in the borough.

The company, which has its headquarters in London and other regional offices in Nottingham and Farnworth, got the cash injection from Benchmark Capital, an investor in new technology ventures which made its name by spotting the potential of online companies like Ebay and Figleaves.

A spokesman said: "We are looking for people with experience in sales who want to form careers in media and advertising, and we will be starting our recruitment almost immediately.

We have already got a wealth of experience at Touch Local so this is a great opportunity for people in Pendle."

Touch Local is the fastest growing online business community in the UK, and has more than 1.7 million hits on its website every month.

It lists local businesses' contact details, as well as other information and reviews on the firms.

The new workers will help to market the site to more companies throughout the North West, as part of the company's expansion strat-egy.

Chief executive Tamer Ozman said: "With the announcement of £7m investment from Benchmark, Touch Local now looks set to fulfil its mission to become the first, true online business community in Britain.

"This significant invest-ment permits us to invest further in key areas such as our Nelson department in the North West.

In particular we will be looking to invest in recruiting new high calibre staff as well as helping current staff members who have contributed towards the company's fast growing success."