Par Equity has led a GBP750,000 financing round with support from The Scottish Investment Bank into UniKLasers, a manufacturer of high precision scientific laser instrumentation used in industrial applications.
This investment is the second that Par Equity has made since its partnership with British Business Investments via the Regional Angels Programme. The round takes UniKLasers’ total funding to GBP2.3 million. Par Equity first invested in UniKLasers in 2017.
UniKLasers will use the capital injection to expand its manufacturing and R&D capability, continue to build its global sales and marketing pipeline and increase its workforce to capitalise on a market directly relevant to their application, estimated to be worth USD1.46 billion.
Newly appointed CEO, tech industry veteran Alan Faichney, has been brought in to strengthen UniKLasers’ leadership team and will oversee this development.
Alan has helped guide a number of Scotland’s tech companies including Pufferfish, Arrayjet, Silent Herdsman and Edinburgh Instruments. He has led several internationally focused businesses through a succession of corporate finance and investment rounds to maximise shareholder value towards a planned exit.
The company closed a private investment round in 2013, which was followed by support from Scottish Enterprise and Lancaster Capital Investment Syndicate, and since 2017 Innovate UK.
UniKLasers CEO Anastasia Bombrys believes that amidst the global disruption and turmoil caused by Covid-19, the investment round comes at a poignant time.
“This month is a very important milestone in laser history. It marks the 60th anniversary since the invention of the world’s first laser by American physicist, Theodore Maiman on 16 May 1960. The intervening period has seen lasers become crucial to manufacturing, engineering and academic research across the world,” she said.
Par Equity’s portfolio includes the likes of Current Health, BrainwaveBank, and NPT, a Middlesbrough-based cleantech company.