Movidius to create 100 jobs in Dublin as it raises $40m

Irish-founded technology company Movidius is to create 100 jobs over the next three years in Ireland after it raised $40 million in funding.

The fabless semiconductor firm will use the funding to drive innovation in its hardware and software as it seeks to take advantage of a growing need for visual sensing products in areas such as wearables, virtual reality headsets, drones and home automation.

Movidius currently has its headquarters in Silicon Valley, and a design centre in Romania, and is expected to announce further job increases at its international offices in the coming months.

However, the latest jobs announcement will focus on its Dublin design centre, with the company recruiting for high tech positions. It currently employs 15 people in its city centre office.

"This is very much the technology nerve centre of the company and always has been. What you're seeing now is a reflection of our increased ability to hire," said chief technology officer David Moloney. "The biggest benefit of the additional capital we have now is the ability to grow the base here and grow our technology base. While you see a lot of things happening on the periphery, we would see this as being key in terms of the company's development."

The latest round brings to $88 million the total amount the company has raised in funding.

The new funding is being led by Summit Bridge, a technology fund that is co-managed by Atlantic Bridge Capital and WestSummit Capital. Also coming on board is Arch Venture Partners and Sunny Optical Technology Group. The round also had contributions from existing investors Atlantic Bridge Bridge Capital, DFJ Esprit, Robert Bosch Venture Capital, Capital E, and AIB Seed Capital Fund.

"It's a huge endorsement of the technology and the team to bring in those new investors," said CFO John Bourke.

“That $40 million is one of the largest venture backed funding in an Irish technology company in the last five years and globally in a fabless semiconductor company in the last two years. It’s very significant in our space.”

The new funding has been welcomed by the Taoiseach Enda Kenny and Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation Richard Bruton.

Movidius is also opening an office in China to support its operations there.

"We're seeing good opportunities in the Chinese market and we have to have people on the ground to effectively support those customers long term," said COO Sean Mitchell.

The company is celebrating 10 years in business in 2015, and recently announced the second generation of its software programmable multimedia chip Myriad. Last year Google announced it would used the Myriad platform in Project Tango, which is the tech giant's smartphone and tablet project that brings intelligent vision-based applications to Android devices. It employs about 70 people worldwide.