Qunnect, a leading company in quantum internet technologies, has announced its Series A financing of $8M, led by Airbus Ventures, with participation from Quantonation, SandboxAQ, NY Ventures, Impact Science Ventures, and Motus Ventures.
Qunnect is creating quantum-secure networking technology for scalable implementation on the current telecom fiber infrastructure. This funding will help them expand production, advance product development, and provide a multi-node R&D quantum network testbed for entanglement distribution algorithms. This network will be the first of its kind in the US and will be connected to the already-existing fiber optic cable in New York City.
“We are very proud to announce the establishment of our state-of-the-art testbed in the US, especially significant news, given the announcement of the Nobel Prize for the elegant physics enabling quantum communication. This testbed will open the door for customers in financial services, critical infrastructure, and telecom to test our technologies in the New York metropolitan area.” “This project allows us to showcase our first-of-their-kind quantum memory and entanglement sources, as well as our quantum network support hardware for precise timing and qubit stabilization. On this journey, we are thrilled to have the support of Airbus Ventures, a leading quantum investor who shares our vision of developing quantum technologies to lead the next wave of ultra-secure communications.”
Dr. Noel Goddard, CEO of Qunnect
Qunnect’s products include an entangled photon source with outstanding compatibility with atomic-based devices and high-fidelity quantum memory, which are critical enablers for quantum sensing and computing applications.
The bulk of quantum networking solutions used in research call for infrastructure with extremely high cooling and vacuum levels. The ultimate value of Qunnect will lie in integrating these technologies into a comprehensive suite to implement long-distance quantum communication protocols. These protocols address the flaws of first-generation Quantum Key Distribution systems, which are essentially restricted in distance and need the scaling of relay nodes, posing security problems.
“We have spent the last several years tailoring every one of our quantum devices to meet the requirements of large-scale, telecom-integrated quantum networking. Now that we have the team and the support, with special thanks to the Airbus Ventures team, we are now ready to start our next phase with a concentrated focus on scalability and field deployment,”
Mehdi Namazi, Qunnect Co-Founder and CSO
As opposed to delicate, climate-controlled laboratory environments, Qunnect’s products offer real-world deployment and scalability and are created to be operational at room temperature. In September 2021, the company marketed the first quantum memory, a crucial piece in allowing long-distance quantum-secure communication protocols. Building on this accomplishment, Qunnect will be prepared to offer the first distributed entanglement network on the commercial market once its first generation product suite is finished in mid-2023.
