Qunnect raises $10m for quantum networking in the datacentre
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US startup Quconnect has raised $10m from Airbus Ventures and Cisco to scale up its room temperature quantum networking technology in the datacentre as it prepares for the next round of funding.
The technology has been proven in a commercial telecoms network in Berlin and can also be used to connect quantum processors in a datacentre.
“The Series A [$8m in 2023] was to fund bringing our products to market and build the networks in New York and Berlin,” Noel Goddard, CEO of Qunnect tells eeNews Europe. “This separate round is led by Airbus again but valued differently and Cisco joined, so this was to unlock the Cisco investment and prove out the use cases. This was driven by the response we received from industry following the performance of Qunnect products deployed on city-scale quantum networking testbeds.”
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“We wanted the company to go into the next funding round strong,” she said. “We will open up The Series B round in the fall and that has a lot to do with how the company focusses on the business side to take the existing products and scaling up. We have hit the first challenge to get out of the lab and we need to take what we have today and make it industry hardened.”
The room-temperature technology is based on a rubidium vapour that traps an entangled photon, the first such system to do so, says Goddard. The company is also developing a quantum memory using the technology that can act as a repeater for longer quantum networks.
“We are the only group using rubidium vapour commercially,” she said. “Networks are by definition decentralised with a lot of nodes. So if you are using atoms [in the vapour] as the core you have a very powerful local reference. Lots of quantum sensors and quantum computers use rubidium so we can talk them easily.”
“We are still the only one that is room temperature,” she said. “The way we do it is a cylinder of rubidium vapour and modulate it with a control laser which makes the vapour transparent or not. When its transparent you sneak the photon in and that preserves the quantum state.”
Berlin’s quantum network
In Deutsche Telkom’s Berlin network, the rack-based quantum system runs on top of the commercial data network over 82km of fibre.
“It’s important for quantum networking to point out that the technology is here today, not five to ten years away. The technology can now be in the hands of users, they are installing it, it is already reaching scale,” she said.
The Cisco backing highlights the datacentre opportunity. “Qunnect understands that quantum networking has to work in the real world, not just in pristine lab conditions,” says Vijoy Pandey, GM and Senior Vice President of Outshift by Cisco, the internal incubation engine.
“Their room-temperature approach aligns with our quantum data centre vision. Qunnect’s approach fits right into our broader quantum networking strategy. We’re not just building one-off research prototypes – we’re creating the infrastructure for a real quantum internet,” he said. “Qunnect has been collaborating with us for some time now, customizing their solutions based on our vision. It’s collaborations like this that move us from interesting research to deployable quantum networking solutions.”
“I think the bigger landmark was that Cisco was very publicly discussing quantum from two directions, in scaling QPUs in the data centre and networking. The datacentre is effectively a mini-city with all the fibre so the fact we are solving the problems at the metro level means that works for the data centre. We see it as a very powerful partnership.
Qunnect is aiming to develop a photonic chipset that reduces the size of the system from a rack to a matchbox. That would be the Series C funding, she says.
“We call the full stack the Carina, which is named after the ship’s keel in Jason and the Argonauts, as that’s the critical infrastructure for development,” said Goddard.
“We need to invest in how we take the subassemblies and pass them to contract manufacturers. It’s fairly well established for a rack based to fixed optics produced in high volume by a third party, but going to a chip is a large investment
www.qunnect.com; www.cisco.com
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