The Carlyle Internet Partners Europe fund, which has finally closed at €730m ($709m) has already made seven investments in start-ups. These include Yazam.com, an early stage investment bank or 'incubank', Bigvine.com, an internet barter company, and Nameplanet.com, the largest owner of domain names with family names covering one billion people on the planet.

Since the Carlyle fund invested in Nameplanet.com, its free email service has grown from 42,000 to 175,000 users.