The present invention provides a driving circuit (100) in particular for driving a laser diode (700) or a modulator, at data speed in the order of Gb/s. The driving circuit (10) has a low-voltage, high-speed output stage capable of driving efficiently a laser diode (700) or a modulator The driver circuit (10) comprises a chain of circuits, said chain comprising a slew-rate control circuit, at least one translinear amplifier (200, 201, 202), a push/pull stage (300), and an output stage (400) for driving the load current. Due to its versatility, the driver can be used in other applications e.g. line drivers, cable drivers, high-speed serial interfaces for back-plane interconnect, etc. The driver can work at low supply voltages, e.g. 3.3V nominal down to 2.7V, with high power efficiency. One major clue is to use entirely the large signal current produced by the output stage, e.g. in the driven laser diode, without wasting current in supply lines.