Sparrow Quantum Aps. announced today that it had secured 31 million DKK (€4.1m) in seed funding, the largest investment to date in a Danish quantum technology company. The funding round was led by the venture capital firm 2xN and includes co-investment from LIFTT and the European Innovation Council (EIC). This financing is a testament to the investors’ belief in the promise of photonic quantum technology as well as Sparrow Quantum’s world-leading expertise in foundational quantum photonics devices.
Sparrow Quantum aims to become a market leader in light-matter interfaces for quantum technologies by bringing foundational quantum photonic components to the market. Deterministic light-matter interfaces have widespread applications in quantum technology; they constitute foundational hardware allowing fully secure quantum communication, a quantum internet for wiring up the world with quantum entanglement, or a scalable quantum computer based on photons.
Sparrow Quantum’s first product is an on-chip single-photon source with unparalleled specs; it provides long strings of more than 100 single photons without deteriorating quality and at a rate of more than 20 million single photons per second in fiber that the customer can directly deploy for, e.g., multi-photon quantum simulations or quantum key distribution experiments. Offering record-beating efficiency and photon indistinguishability, Sparrow Quantum’s single-photon sources are expected to promote new avenues for research and enable photonic quantum technology researchers to conduct their experiments more efficiently and cost-effectively. Furthermore, Sparrow Quantum plans to become a trusted component provider in the quantum industry supply chain by teaming up with developers of quantum technology systems to incorporate its single-photon sources into large-scale commercial quantum systems.
Sparrow Quantum’s technology results from over two decades of pioneering research by founder Prof. Peter Lodahl and his quantum photonics research group at the prestigious Niels Bohr Institute (NBI) in Copenhagen, Denmark. Peter was the first to demonstrate that light emission can be fully controlled using intricate photonic nanostructures. Peter currently heads the Hybrid Quantum Networks Hy-Q Center of Excellence, which is developing fundamentally new quantum hardware for the emergent field of quantum-information science, such as deterministic single-photon sources, spin-photon interfaces, and photonic quantum gates.
The NBI Head of Department, Prof. Jan Thomsen, commented, “We are thrilled to see the commercial potential of our research at NBI realized through Sparrow Quantum’s groundbreaking technology. Their development of deterministic single-photon sources is a significant step forward in advancing quantum technologies, and we are proud to support their efforts to bring this technology to market.”
Accelerating product development and expanding the team
With this seed investment, Sparrow Quantum will accelerate the development of its products and services, expand its team, and strengthen its position as the market leader in quantum light-matter interfaces and next-gen single-photon sources for commercial quantum technologies.
“The support from our investors is evidence of our team’s hard work and dedication and the potential of our technology,” said Prof. Peter Lodahl, Founder and CSO of Sparrow Quantum. “Thanks to this investment, we can continue to develop our single-photon source and accelerate its market entry. Moreover, we can start executing our roadmap of how to make our foundational technology the chosen approach in advanced quantum systems applications within quantum communication and quantum computing.”
“We are delighted to have secured this investment from 2xN, LIFTT, and the EIC,” said Kurt Stokbro, CEO of Sparrow Quantum. “This funding will allow us to advance our development of light-matter interfaces for commercial quantum technologies and bring our next-generation products to market faster. We firmly believe that photonic quantum technologies have the potential to revolutionize how we process and communicate information in the future, and we are excited to be providing the specialized components that will drive this field forward.”
“We are very impressed by Sparrow Quantum’s technology and the team’s vision for the future of photonic quantum technologies,” said Niels Nielsen, co-founder at 2xN. “We believe in backing world-class teams, and Sparrow Quantum is one of them, and it has the potential to become the market leader in this space, and we are excited to be supporting them on this journey.”
“LIFTT is excited to invest in Sparrow Quantum and support their innovative technology in the quantum photonics field,” commented LIFTT’s CEO, Giovanni Tesoriere. “Their dedication to developing top-quality deterministic single-photon sources and light-matter interfaces has the potential to transform various industries, from quantum computing to secure communication. We look forward to seeing the impact of their work on the future of technology.”
Hermann Hauser, the EIC Fund Board member, said: “The EIC Fund aims at backing European innovators in scaling their journey, and Sparrow Quantum is a great example of how the European Union is helping top innovators. The EIC Fund’s ambitious commitment, alongside other investors, is an important step to boost their development.”
About Sparrow Quantum
Sparrow Quantum is a Danish quantum technology company dedicated to advancing light-matter interfaces for quantum technologies. The company is widely recognized as a leader in single-photon sources, demonstrating the world’s highest light-matter coupling efficiency.
The unparalleled technology of Sparrow Quantum offers researchers and developers of quantum technology systems access to essential building blocks for scaling up advanced quantum technology applications in information processing and communication. Application areas include secure quantum communication, photonic quantum computing, and quantum repeaters for the quantum internet.
Sparrow Quantum’s technology results from over two decades of pioneering research by founder Prof. Peter Lodahl and his Hybrid Quantum Networks Hy-Q Center of Excellence at the prestigious Niels Bohr Institute (NBI) in Copenhagen, Denmark.
About 2xN
2xN is a London-based VC firm focused on early-stage investments, e.g., in quantum technology. The firm was co-founded by Niels Nielsen, a Danish entrepreneur, tech investor, and pioneer investor in quantum (Quantinuum board member and early investor). The investment in Sparrow Quantum is its second investment into a Danish Quantum business and is made by 2xN Venture Fund I, SCSp, in which the Danish sovereign wealth fund, Denmark’s Export and Investment Fund, is the cornerstone investor. The other investors include Nordic institutions and large family offices. Learn more by visiting www.2xn.vc
About LIFTT
LIFTT guarantees high visibility to ideas and new businesses at a national and international level, investing and attracting capital and ensuring maximum impact on the local and national territory. While generating value for its shareholders, LIFTT supports the creation of businesses, development, employment, and economic growth, through the implementation of an ethical and transparent governance model, based on the participation of all the actors involved. To learn more, please visit www.liftt.com
About EIC Fund
The European Innovation Council Fund from the European Commission is an agnostic Fund: it invests across all technologies and verticals and all EU countries and countries associated with Horizon Europe. It provides the investment component of the EIC Accelerator blended finance.
The EIC Fund aims to fill a critical financing gap, and its primary purpose is to support companies in the development and commercialization of disruptive technologies, bridging with and crowding in market players and further sharing risk by building an extensive network of capital providers and strategic partners suitable for co-investments and follow-on funding.
The Fund pays particular attention to the empowerment and support of female founders and the ambition to reduce the innovation divide among EU countries. Find out about EIC funding opportunities by visiting www.eic.ec.europa.eu