Chief executive Alan Faichney told The Herald the business is looking into options for raising money to help it implement expansion plans which include opening a US office.

EI, the first ever spin out from Heriot Watt University when it was founded by physics professor Des Smith, manufactures and designs lasers, gas sensors and spectrometers mainly for the academic and industrial research markets around the world.

Mr Faichney said: "We are looking to get some kind of investment into the company to accelerate our growth. There are a lot of options. There are growth funds which would tend to take a minority stake while there are venture capitalists who wouldn't be interested in a minority stake.

"We don't need the money. We have growth, good bank balances and no debt but there is such an obvious case that we could go faster if we had money to spend that it would be daft from the shareholders point of view not to pursue that.

"A fair number of share-holders are ex-employees, who got the holding quite some time ago and are retired now, so they might be interested in an exit.

"From my perspective I am just looking to grow the company, keep it in Scotland and make it even more successful."

Experienced former Aggreko executive Dr Derek Shepherd, who became EI chairman earlier this year, will play a key part in assessing the investment options for the business.

Mr Faichney added: "A chairman like Derek Shepherd is the kind of person we need to talk to private wealth funds or venture capitalists to get that investment. Derek is the kind of guy, with his international business background, I am happy to have beside me when we speak to people."

Professor Smith remains the largest single shareholder, according to records at Companies House.