Venture capitalists are betting that more consumers will spend money on gadgets that help them navigate roads while entertaining them at the same time. A case in point: Centrality Communications, which designs chips for making those navigational systems work, just reeled in $20 million for its fourth round of fundraising.

Centrality, based in Santa Clara, California, has developed chips that power handheld and in-vehicle navigational systems for well-known brands, including Siemens, Bosch, and Daewoo.

“We invest in Centrality because its technology gives manufacturers the highest degree of design and production flexibility at the lowest system cost,” said Kevin McQuillan, general partner of Focus Ventures, in announcing the latest funding Monday. Focus Ventures led the latest round of funding. Mr. McQuillan also serves on Centrality’s board.

Centrality engineers have been able to pile several functions, including GPS, imaging, video, and TV tuning, onto a chip. Doing so allows Centrality’s customers to provide those features to consumers without having to use separate chips, thereby reducing the production cost.

Centrality’s family of chips is used by eight of the top 10 makers of navigation systems. Forty products worldwide carry Centrality’s chips, said company spokesperson David Wang. One company, Fine Digital of South Korea, began mass-producing a handheld device with Centrality’s chips last Friday.

“Our market focus and solid execution has resulted in Centrality winning top-quality customers at a tremendous pace,” said Robert Baxter, chief executive of Centrality.

Navigational devices are gaining more consumer acceptance nowadays (see Navigation Catches On). Centrality expects to increase its chip shipment three- to four-fold next year. It’s shipped 1.2 million chips since 2004.

The company has raised about $53 million since its birth in 1999. Its investors also include Acer Technology Ventures, Walden International, VentureTech Alliance, and Harbinger Ventures.

Both Acer and VentureTech are investment groups set up by Taiwanese companies. Acer is one of the world’s top 10 PC makers. VentureTech is affiliated with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing, the world’s largest contract chip maker.

Asia offers lower engineering and other expenses for companies such as Centrality. The chip startup has offices in Taiwan, Beijing, and Shanghai, where it has a major research and development operation. In fact, 130 of its 160 employees work in Asia.

The company is up against some formidable competitors, however. The competitors include large chip companies such as Intel and Samsung.