By Business & Finance 
L-R: An Taoiseach, Enda Kenny TD, Movidius founders Sean Mitchell (COO) and David Moloney (CTO) and Minister for Jobs, Enterprise & Employment, Richard Bruton TD.
The announcement made today of one the largest venture capital investments to take place in Ireland will accelerate the adoption of visual sensing in connected devices and see the creation of up to 100 jobs in Ireland.
This latest round of funding for the Irish-founded company was welcomed today by the An Taoiseach, Enda Kenny TD and the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation Richard Bruton TD at Movidius’ D’Olier Street, Dublin. The funding is the largest for a fabless semiconductor company in the past two years globally.
The investment was led by Summit Bridge Capital, the China-Ireland Growth Technology Fund co-managed by Atlantic Bridge Capital and WestSummit Capital, and includes new contributions from ARCH Venture Partners and Sunny Optical Technology Group, as well as early investors including Atlantic Bridge Capital, DFJ Esprit, Robert Bosch Venture Capital, AIB Seed Capital Fund and Capital-E. As part of this new round, David Lam of WestSummit Capital will be joining Movidius’ board of directors.
Movidius will use the financing to further drive software and hardware product innovation in visual sensing for the next wave of emerging applications, including virtual reality headsets, drones, home automation and wearables. Its technology will transform how devices and users interact with the world around them through intelligent, vision-based technology.
An Taoiseach Enda Kenny said: “The Government has a plan for sustainable full employment by 2018. Supporting cutting edge Irish companies like Movidius is essential to develop an enterprise focused economy. The impressive $40 million investment being announced today will lead to 100 new high quality jobs being created in Ireland and will boost Irish exports in the growing computer vision technology sector. I am particularly pleased that this investment has been made under the China Ireland Growth Capital Technology Fund which will enhance the strategic relationship between our two countries.”
Richard Bruton TD remarked: “At the heart of our Action Plan for Jobs is creating a powerful engine of Irish enterprise alongside the strong multinational sector we have built up. Today’s announcement that Movidius, a ground-breaking company operating at the cutting edge of global technology, is expanding in Ireland and creating 100 extra jobs here is a great example of what Irish companies can achieve. I wish Remi and his team every success with this project.”
The growth of the Internet of Things, with billions of connected devices to be installed globally in the next several years, is accelerating the market for Movidius’ technology. This financing will enable Movidius to continue to work with its partners to fuel innovation and business growth in visually intelligent devices. In the last two years, Movidius has established offices in Silicon Valley, continued to scale its R&D team, appointed new members to its Technical Advisory Board, collaborated with new customers and partners, such as Google for its Project Tango device, and launched the next generation of its vision processor for mobile and connected devices.
Remi El-Ouazzane, CEO of Movidius commented: “Movidius has pioneered an entirely new class of cost-effective, low-power and high-performance processors, software and development tools, and this platform enables our customers to implement visual sensing that aims to mirror human vision capabilities. This significant investment of capital provides us with the resources to expand strategically, innovate constantly and extend our market leadership.”
