Scottish Equity Partners (SEP) has co-led a $10 million Series A funding round for emerging Irish fabless semiconductor spinout Powervation, underlining its expertise in the semiconductor sector.

SEP co-led the round with Intel Capital while other investors included Venture Tech Alliance and existing local investors Fourth Level Ventures. Enterprise Ireland, an original investor, also retains a stake.

SEP has a strong track record in backing highly successful fabless semiconductor companies including Cambridge Silicon Radio (CSR) and Wolfson Microelectronics. It also recently invested in Gigle Semiconductor, a specialist in multimedia home networking solutions.

Powervation, which is based in Limerick and specialises in digital power controller solutions, was a spinout from the Circuits and Systems Research Centre at the University of Limerick in 2006. It is headed by an experienced team including Founder and Chief Executive Officer Antoin Russell who was previously Managing Director for Ireland of Power-One Inc, a $300 million public corporation which makes power converters.

Powervation will use the new funds for the commercial launch of its digital energy control solutions and to expand its sales and marketing presence in the United States and Asia.

The company’s digital energy controllers are used in microprocessors for high performance processing applications including networking, telecommunications, and storage and industrial markets. They offer advantages over current analogue-based solutions including energy efficiency, performance, reliability, ease-of-use and cost.

Its products are aimed at a growing market as demand for digital power controllers is forecast to exceed 300 million units by 2011.