RedMere Technology Ltd. secures €6.5m in Venture Funding

• First Round Funding, lead by Celtic House Venture Partners
• Funding to accelerate the release of its ground-breaking communications technology
• Creation of 15 additional high-end research and development jobs in Drogheda and Cork.

Drogheda, Ireland, xx October, 2006 – RedMere Technology Ltd., a fabless semiconductor company based in Drogheda, today announced the closing of a €6.5million (US$8.2m) first round of venture capital funding.

The company develops technology that will become common place in next generation Consumer Electronics devices like High Definition TV and home entertainment projection systems.  RedMere’s technology increases the reliability and reduces the cost of high-speed communications channels. As more television programming becomes digital, consumer devices will increase in complexity in order to handle the increased volume and speed of information.  RedMere’s advanced microchip technology will manage this flow of data with faster and lower energy chipsets, positioning the company amongst the world’s leading pioneers in this field.

The A-round was led by Celtic House Venture Partners of Ottawa and London and included syndicate partners Enterprise Ireland, 4th Level Ventures and Enterprise Equity as well as reinvestment by seed round investors.

RedMere will use the funds to expand the application of its ground-breaking communications technology into a family of HDMI (High Definition Multimedia Interfaces) products addressing Consumer Electronics platforms such as High-definition TVs, Media Centres, Media PCs, Set-top-boxes, Projection Systems, Home Theatre Systems, DVD Recorders and Personal Video Recorders.  HDMI is the new connection technology for televisions and other audio visual devices, replacing the old Scart cables. 

The HDMI market is experiencing rapid growth estimates of which are being revised upwards.  In September 2004 the research house In-Stat estimated that there would be in excess of 110 million HDMI-enabled units produced by 2008.  By December 2005 In-Stat had revised its estimates upwards, predicting over 250 million HDMI units in the same time, a trend recognised early by RedMere.

RedMere currently employs 20 people in its offices in Drogheda and Cork, mainly in Research and Development.  Following the funding round RedMere will increase its Marketing and Sales operations in the United States and Asia and fund further technology development.  The company will expand its number of highly skilled employees in Ireland to 40 by the end of 2007.

RedMere’s new technology is in industry trials in its HDMI receiver products today.

Roger Maggs and Brian Antonen, both partners in Celtic House Venture Partners, join the board of RedMere Technology as non-executive directors.