TWO IRISH technology firms have announced they have raised a combined total of €6.3 million in venture capital funding.

RedMere, a designer of chips used in high definition data cables, closed a $5.6 million second round of funding which was led by Canadian investors Celtic House Venture Partners. EdgeStone Capital Partners (Toronto) and Enterprise Equity (Dublin) also participated in the round.

Separately, mobile content and services provider Zamano, which is listed on Dublin’s IEDX market, said it had raised €2.5 million from the Ulster Bank Diageo Venture Fund, which is managed by NCB Ventures.

Ulster Bank Diageo has been issued with 13,888,889 new shares in Zamano, giving it a 14.6 per cent stake in the firm. The stake was purchased at a 5.3 per cent discount to Zamano’s closing price of 19 cent on Wednesday evening.

RedMere said it would use its new funding to expand into the digital camera and smartphone markets.

Using RedMere’s EyeWire chip technology can reduce the amount of copper in a high definition cable by up to 80 per cent, which allows for thin flexible cables of about 2mm in diameter.

The company said in a statement that it had won a number of contracts in the US and Europe recently with manufacturers of cables that adhere to the HDMI standard.

Earlier this year it announced that Monster, the leading brand of high-end audio and video cables, had signed up as its first customer.

In a release to the Irish Stock Exchange, Zamano said it would use the funding to move into the smartphone space, fund expansion into new territories and reduce its gross debt by €1 million.

To date, Zamano has primarily been a provider of premium content for mobiles such as ringtones and wallpapers. Like many firms in that space it has occasionally attracted complaints from consumers and has been formally sanctioned by British regulator PhonepayPlus.

Michael Murphy of NCB Ventures said Zamano fitted the fund’s profile of investing in Irish SMEs that had significant export potential.