Semiconductor firm RedMere Technology has raised $7 million in funding, bringing total investment at the firmto about $20 million.  

The company’s vice-president of business development, Chris Russell, said the latest funding came from existing investors. Last year, RedMere raised $5 million in a funding round that was led by Edgestone Capital Partners, a Canadian private equity firm. Enterprise Equity, 4th Level Ventures, Enterprise Ireland and Celtic House Partners, another Canadian firm, are also investors in the firm.

Russell said RedMere, which was set up in late 2004, would use the funds to deploy its products to market and continue its expansion. The firm has design and production offices in Dublin and Cork, but outsources production of chips to Asia. It has an office in Taipei, Taiwan, and is expanding in that region.

 According to accounts recently filed, it had net losses of almost €6million last year. Russell said the firm - like many start-ups - was incurring losses as it developed. He said the firm’s accounts for this year would be more positive. At the end of last year, the firm accumulated losses of almost €10 million, an increase from just under €3.9 million a year earlier.  RedMere had almost €3.6 million in cash on its balance sheet at the end of 2007, down slightly from the 2006 figure of just under €3.8 million. Peter Smyth, chief executive and founder of RedMere, and the company’s other founders previously worked at chip firms including Ceva, the Dublin chip firm previously known as Parthus Technologies.  Kevin Fielding, a venture capitalist and former chief executive of Parthus, is chairman of RedMere. Michael Reilly, a former managing director of JP Morgan Chase in New York, is also a director and investor.