Sherbrooke, Québec’s SBQuantum has closed $4 million USD ($5.5 million CAD) in seed funding, installed a new leader, and established an American sister entity as the deep technology startup prepares to expand to the United States (US).
These three moves, which the company announced this morning, come shortly after SBQuantum deployed its quantum sensors in space as part of the US National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency-led MagQuest Challenge, kicking off its quest to help the world navigate in a post-GPS era.
SBQuantum develops quantum diamond magnetometers—sensors designed to replace or augment existing navigation systems in contested or degraded environments using the Earth’s magnetic field. This includes locations where GPS systems suffer interference due to targeted jamming or spoofing, as well as places where they simply malfunction or become weak above certain latitudes, such as in the Arctic, due to a lack of satellites passing overhead.
“Demand for alternatives to GPS is no longer theoretical.”
David Roy-Guay,
SBQuantum
SBQuantum’s seed round was co-led by quantum-focused, Paris-based Quantonation and Sherbrooke’s Quantacet with support from Investissment Québec. It marks the nearly 10-year-old company’s first private capital to date. SBQuantum plans to use this funding to grow its team and accelerate its growth in both Canada and the US.
“The timing of this investment reflects the growing urgency around resilient navigation and threat detection capabilities in both the defense and commercial sectors,” SBQuantum co-founder and CTO David Roy-Guay said in a release. “Demand for alternatives to GPS is no longer theoretical, and it is being driven by real operational requirements in the field.”
SBQuantum CPO Eric Giroux, who has spent more than a decade working in the security and defence sectors, including as CEO of RaySecur, is taking over as the startup’s CEO, as predecessor Roy-Guay transitions to the role of CTO.
Giroux, who has past experience commercializing sensor tech, said in the release that he thinks SBQuantum is “uniquely positioned to become a global leader in this space.”
To date, SBQuantum has secured over $15 million in research and development contracts with the Canadian Department of National Defense, European Space Agency, and others. Roy-Guay said SBQuantum’s seed investors offer another important validation of its tech, and expects their experience and know-how to help the company scale.
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Located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, newly-formed Zero Drift Technologies is dedicated to commercializing SBQuantum’s tech in the US. The startup created Zero Drift to better serve US government clients and major defence contractors while preserving its Canadian engineering base and intellectual property. Going forward, the two entities will operate in parallel.
According to SBQuantum, its quantum sensors could be used for a range of applications, from boosting security screening near schools, sports venues, and government buildings, to serving as a stand-in for GPS in war zones. For its part, the Government of Canada recently recognized quantum sensors as a key sovereign capability under its Defence Industrial Strategy.
“For Quantacet, the time was ripe for investing in this Canadian leader with a field-tested technology now ready to go to market just as we see great appetite for such solutions especially from the public safety and defence markets,” Quantacet partner Chloé Archambault said in the release.
Feature image courtesy SBQuantum.