We present a strain-compensation design for non-resonantly pumped vertical external cavity surface-emitting lasers for emission in the red spectral range around 665 nm. Here, the VECSEL chip is based on a metal-organic vapor-phase epitaxy grown (GaxIn1-x)(0.5)P-0.5/[(AlxGa1-x)(y)](0.5) P-0.5 multi-quantum-well structure with 20 compressively strained quantum wells. By introducing tensile strained quaternary barriers and cladding layers in a 5 x 4 QW design, we could compensate for the compressive strain introduced by the quantum wells. Photoluminenscence measurements of structures with different numbers of quantum well packages reveal a more homogenous quantum well growth due to the strain-compensation technique. Furthermore, with the strain compensation technique, the output power could be increased over 30% compared to our conventional structures. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.