SPI Lasers has raised £10m from institutional investors and will later float in a share placing on the AIM Stock Exchange in February.
A second set of ordinary shares will be placed on February 23. The firm started as Southampton Photonics and was spun out of the University of Southampton’s highly regarded Optoelectronics Research Centre.
The firm – which makes optical fibre-based lasers - said revenues for the year are likely to be in line with a market estimate of £7m.
“SPI has made significant progress over the last quarter of 2006 and into 2007. The group is now shipping 200W lasers for micro [technologies], and is shipping pulsed lasers in volume for marking. Having won over 30 new accounts in micro, and with several new verticals opened in the last six months (welding, consumer electronics, automotive, medical and diamond processing), SPI has also seen strong demand for its new marking lasers with purchased trials at over 15 accounts and volume shipments commenced at more than five accounts,” said the firm.
SPI’s order book is at a record £5m for the first half of 2007. Key trials in the semiconductor and consumer electronics sectors could lead to sales into these sectors in the second half of the year.
David Parker, chief executive of SPI Lasers, said: “We are delighted to complete the fundraising and have seen a very positive response from a range of high quality institutions. We believe that SPI is now appropriately capitalised to fund the company to profitability.”