A former Future50 firm's decision to relocate from Norfolk to Cambridge to aid its expansion is already paying dividends after it revealed it had secured a further £2.5m of investment.

Intelligent Fingerprinting has secured the cash from a mixture of British and US investors to help provide working capital to complete the development of the company's first products and to begin manufacturing at their new custom-designed premises in Cambridge.

The firm, a University of East Anglia spin-out which was formed in 2007, is developing the world's first portable fingerprint-based drug screening device, promising to simplify the way in which tests are carried out.

Sample collection takes five seconds and the analysis of fingerprint sweat to screen for multiple drugs of abuse takes less than 10 minutes.

The device has potential for use in a variety of drug screening situations including drug rehabilitation services, offender management, criminal justice and occupational health.

Dr Jerry Walker, chief executive officer, said: 'This timely new investment represents another step forward for our company.

'It allows us to finalise our revolutionary mobile drug screening technology for market and begin the manufacturing process to meet early demand for the first of our planned fingerprint-based products.'

Intelligent Fingerprinting secured initial investment in 2009, followed by the first round of funding from the company's US investors in 2012.

Prior to the latest announcement, the company has raised £5.73m of private investment in the past four years, in addition to the original seed funding of £0.5m.

It has also secured several government-funded grants, including a sizeable grant from the EUREKA Eurostars Programme (administered by Innovate UK) and funding for pilot studies within the UK's National Health Service and coroners' services.

Has your business attracted new investment? Contact Mark Shields on 01603 772426 or email mark.shields@archant.co.uk