Boston, MA and Geneva, Switzerland--Physics and materials-science-focused venture capital fund Qwave Capital made a $5.6 million dollar investment for a minority stake in ID Quantique. The investment is the fourth made by QWave Capital and its first investment in quantum communications technology.
ID Quantique says it is active in the $20 billion encrypted communication market, helping to protect both sensitive national security information in the public sector and financial information in the private sector. With modern computing quickly becoming sophisticated enough to crack complex encryption, ID Quantique has pioneered the commercial usage of Quantum Key Distribution (QKD), a method in which one party sends a cryptographic key encoded with photons to another party. The company recently announced that, using its products, Ohio-Based R&D giant Battelle had completed the installation of the first commercial QKD protected network in the United States to secure communications between key facilities in the Columbus area.
"ID Quantique and Quantum Key Distribution are the future of communication in industries where security and confidentiality are mission-critical," said Serguei Kouzmine, managing partner at QWave Capital and president of the Russian Quantum Center. "This technology and this company exist because of the tremendous opportunity presented by advancements in quantum mechanics. The academic and scientific advances of the past are becoming the real commercialized technology solutions that will change tomorrow."
Launched in December 2012, QWave is the first fund focused exclusively on companies developing next-generation technologies based on material sciences and physics. QWave is a global fund backed by a team of scientists with proven entrepreneurial records. The fund's scientific advisory board includes professors and scientists from Harvard, Purdue, and quantum centers around the world.
ID Quantique CEO Grégoire Ribordy said QWave Capital's investment will help the company to expand its commercial activities and penetrate new markets.
"Serguei and the team at QWave are more than traditional investors," said Ribordy. "They have a unique combination of business and scientific expertise that makes them an ideal partner for us. While in the future there will be hundreds of companies using quantum mechanics to make technology smarter, faster, and smaller, today there are only a handful. Having investors with strong physics background and multiple connections in quantum research institutions will help us better navigate the uncharted waters of bringing quantum technology to market, and become leaders in quantum innovation."
SOURCE: ID Quantique; http://www.idquantique.com/press-releases/qwave-investment.html