Welinq SAS, a French startup building quantum interconnects based on neutral atom technology, announced today that it has raised €5 million ($5.4 million) in a pre-seed round.
The round was led by Quantonation, the first venture capital fund dedicated to quantum technology start-ups, with participation from Runa Capital, the Paris Region, the French National Quantum Initiative, the French Investment Bank and the European Commission.
The startup is working to help scale up quantum computing using advanced “quantum memory technology,” which will serve as a kind of quantum communications infrastructure that will enable “the deployment of the quantum internet.” It says it will.
Welinq’s quantum memory-based interconnect is designed to entangle and interact with physically separated quantum processing units. They rely on photons synchronized with quantum memory to share quantum information and create the entanglement between QPUs that underlie all quantum computers. In this way, it provides the infrastructure necessary to increase the number of qubits that can be integrated with each other, enabling the development of his QPU more powerful than is currently possible, Welinq said.
A quantum memory interconnect facilitates the storage and on-demand release of quantum information. They work by leveraging laser-cooled neutral atom technology that has demonstrated 90% efficiency in storage and retrieval, a parameter that measures how much information is retained throughout the process. Welinq is currently developing the first highly efficient quantum interconnect that is compatible and deployable with quantum communication infrastructure.
In addition to building more powerful QPUs, Welinq’s quantum interconnect will also enable the development of long-range quantum information networks that can be used by geographically separated quantum computers to communicate with each other.
Welinq co-founder and CEO Tom Darras explained that quantum memory is a critical missing piece of the hardware needed to scale quantum technology. “For these devices to have a real impact on industry and society, not only do they need to get to market as quickly as possible, they also need to demonstrate extremely high performance and robustness,” he said. Told.
Quantonation partner Christophe Jurczak echoed these sentiments, stating that efficient quantum interconnects are a key pillar of the overall quantum infrastructure ecosystem that accelerates the development of real-world applications. “The founding team has breakthrough expertise and a clear path to impact,” he said.
