AIB investment in chip firm reaches €940k

9 Dec 2010

AIB Seed Capital Fund, co-managed by Enterprise Equity Venture Capital, has completed the fifth tranche of equity funding in Movidius Limited, bringing the total investment from the AIB Seed Capital Fund to €940,000.

Movidius is an Irish fabless semiconductor company that develops high-definition 3D video chips.

Founded in 2005 by experienced semiconductor executives Sean Mitchell and David Moloney, Movidius is venture backed and has raised US$21.2m of institutional capital since late 2008. The company was supported during its early phase by Enterprise Ireland and BES funding.

In addition to the AIB Seed Capital Fund, experienced Canadian technology investor Celtic House Venture Partners has led the investment rounds to date, augmented with European VC investors Capital-E (Belgium) and Emertec Gestion (France).

Headquartered in Dublin, Movidius employs 53 people and has offices in Belfast, Hong Kong and a substantial software development centre in Romania.

HD 3D experience

In the past six months, Movidius has announced its 3D product platform Myriad 3D. This is the first platform in the world to be optimised out of the box to enable a 3D experience in high definition (HD) on mobile devices, allowing handset designers, for example, to easily produce a whole new generation of 3D-enabled smartphones.

The first product in the Myriad 3D platform range is the MA1133, the world’s first semiconductor product capable of a range of unique 3D functions: preview, capturing and processing high quality user-generated 3D video and images on a mobile phone; converting any 2D video to 3D in real time, and upscaling and playback of content on HD.

“The initial and follow-on investments by the AIB Seed Capital Fund have been enormously helpful in enabling us to fully develop and validate our Myriad platform and software, and this funding support has cemented relationships with other key investors,” said Sean Mitchell, CEO, Movidius.

“We believe we are now well placed to further develop our product offering in key international markets,” Mitchell said.

John Kennedy is a journalist who served as editor of Silicon Republic for 17 years

editorial@siliconrepublic.com