It also received the first investment made by Scottish Venture Fund, worth £2 million.

The deal’s funding was led by 3i and included Esprit Capital Partners, FNI and Alice Ventures. Noble and Co and Silicon Valley Bank provided debt funding.

Intense chief executive Scott Christie says: ‘We wished to secure funding for our next phase of growth that will allow the company to take advantage of the significant opportunity in the rapidly evolving and consolidating semiconductor laser sector.’

HPD, which specialises in lasers for the defence, medical and industrial sectors, will be renamed Intense – HPD. The company will remain at its headquarters in New Jersey, US.

Intense was previously backed by Scottish Enterprise through Scottish Enterprise Lanarkshire and the Scottish Co-investment Fund.

Glasgow-based Intense develops laser products for applications such as print and imaging. It supplies items such as laser arrays and high power single emitters. The company had a turnover of £868,000 and a pre-tax loss of some £10.4 million for the year to December 2005.