Mobile video specialist Movidius brings in $7.5M

A mobile-video upstart is looking to pick up the pace with backing from European venture capitalists. Movidius, an Irish chipmaker focusing on 3D video for mobile devices, has raised a Series B funding totaling $7.5 million. The round came from existing shareholders including Celtic House Venture Partners, Capital E, Emertec Gestion, AIB Seed Capital Fund and angel investors. Movidius raised a total of $14 million in a Series A round in 2008.

Movidius released its first chip for Android mobile devices in January 2009. The low-power processor is designed to enable a boost up a number of features on smartphones such as real-time video editing, image capture and effects, and 3D mobile video playback. The Myriad architecture, as Movidius calls it, also supports rapid downscaling, or reducing the resolution of recorded videos, for easier uploads to social networks like Facebook or YouTube.

The Dublin-based company will use the funding to shift gears from development to high-volume production. Movidius is sampling the chip to “major players” in the mobile market—looking at the choice of software platform, the Android, the list includes surely HTC, Samsung, Motorola and Sony Ericsson. The company expects to go into mass production later this year, and says it expects to see smartphones with the Myriad chip on the market early next year.

Movidius has offices in Dublin and Hong Kong and a software development center in Romania.

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