M Squared Lasers to use £1.65m from BGF to scale

Glasgow-based M Squared Lasers, a leading force in the UK’s growing laser and photonics sector, has received a further investment of £1.65m from BGF to support its continued rapid growth.

M Squared has seen consistent year-on-year growth since BGF’s initial investment in 2012, more than doubling its revenues every two years. This latest investment will provide capital to support the business as it expands across the UK, Europe and the US.

M Squared has achieved an average annual average growth of 40% since BGF invested in 2012, with current sales exceeding £10m. The company is a leading business in the laser and photonics market, a sector predicted to be worth billions of dollars within the next decade.

M Squared supplies laser systems to world-leading research institutions including universities such as Oxford, Cambridge, Glasgow and Birmingham in the UK and MIT, Harvard and Stanford in the USA. It also partners with global research bodies to develop novel light-based applications, capable of tackling global problems.

Its ground-breaking laser platform SolsTiS is being used to underpin exciting scientific advances, for example it’s behind the world’s most accurate clocks and the first demonstration of teleportation of information. Other notable projects include collaboration with the UK government’s £120 million national network of Quantum Hubs to explore the properties of quantum mechanics.

Founded in 2006, M Squared has established itself as one of Britain’s fastest-growing, most disruptive technology businesses. It has already been recognised by the Deloitte Technology Fast 50, Deloitte EMEA Fast 500 and Sunday Times Fast Track 100. This year, the company was selected by Bloomberg as one of its Business Innovators, by Everline as a Future 50 business, and awarded the prestigious Queen’s Award for Enterprise: Innovation.

M Squared Lasers Founder and CEO, Dr Graeme Malcolm OBE commented: “BGF has been a long-time supporter of M Squared. Its continued investment has allowed us to maintain our fast-growth trajectory, scale up our manufacturing capacity, launch our Innovation Group and expand in key export markets.

“Since 2012, we are thrilled to have received a number of awards and accolades for innovation and business growth, including the prestigious Queen’s Award for Enterprise in Innovation. BGF’s most recent investment is a resounding endorsement of the technology that we are developing and recognition of its disruptive impact.”

Patrick Graham, Investor at BGF added:

“The global presence of M Squared is impressive and its international growth potential was a major attraction to BGF at the time of our original investment in April 2012. The business has gone from strength-to-strength and as a provider of long-term growth capital we are very supportive of its further expansion in target markets of the UK, Europe and US.

“The business has truly innovative products, skills and knowledge and despite its global reach has remained loyal to its Scottish roots.“