The company has also announced the promotion of cofounder David Stewart to chief executive officer, and appointment of Peter Denyer as a nonexecutive director.

CriticalBlue is preparing Cascade, a "co-processor synthesis" product that will take applications software and synthesize a hardware co-processor that accelerates software tasks chosen by the user. At the time of the company's introduction in May 2003, Stewart was vice president of sales and marketing (see May 12 story). Stewart previously worked at Cadence Design Systems, Redwood Design Automation and Simutech.

Denyer was founder and chief executive officer of VLSI Vision Ltd., a Scottish technology company that developed and sold CMOS image sensors until it was acquired by ST Microelectronics in 1999. He serves on the advisory board of Pentech ventures, the U.K.-based venture capital firm that led CriticalBlue's first round of funding.

The funds will be used to continue product development and to engage with the first set of customers, according to a spokeswoman. She said the company will be hiring more people and will probably open a U.S. office in the first half of 2004.