Northern Gritstone has made an £850,000 Seed investment into Cavero Quantum, a disruptive quantum security spin-out. It comes as part of a £2.2 million Seed round led by Foresight.
Cavero Quantum, a University of Leeds spin-out, has developed a new encryption technology for secure key generation and authentication.
Compatible with legacy hardware, requiring little bandwidth and secure against cyber-attack by quantum computers, the technology is attractive to a wide range of sectors and has immediate market application by replacing multi-factor authentication and one-time passwords with a high security, frictionless, password-less form of authentication.
Founded by Professor Ben Varcoe and Dr Frey Wilson, Cavero Quantum will use the funding to begin commercialising its technology and launch its first product. Ben will support Cavero Quantum alongside his existing role as Professor of Quantum Information Science at the University of Leeds, while Frey will become Chief Technology Officer.
They will be supported by newly appointed CEO James Trenholme and Andrew Wallace as Chair. James is an experienced software entrepreneur and Andrew has significant deeptech experience in quantum computing.
Northern Gritstone CEO, Duncan Johnson, said: “Cavero Quantum’s technology is applicable today and has the potential to allow individuals, businesses and nations to function safely in a post-quantum world.
“Spun out of the University of Leeds’ innovation ecosystem, one of Northern Gritstone’s university partners, Cavero Quantum is an example of a world-class business of tomorrow built on the amazing science and technology that exists in the North of England today.”
James Trenholme, CEO at Cavero Quantum, said: “The technology that Ben, Frey and the experimental quantum science team at the University of Leeds have built is ground-breaking.
“It is the first solution in the world that can replace security standards like ECDH without compromising on architecture and customer experience, keeping data safe for the next 30 plus years as quantum computing becomes the norm. It’s an honour to lead Cavero Quantum and it’s great team. I’m looking forward to building a great business together.”
Professor Nick Plant, Deputy Vice-Chancellor: Research and Innovation, University of Leeds, said: “It is inspiring to see how the experimental quantum science team at Leeds, with support from Northern Gritstone, has developed solutions for such a critical issue in online security.
“Cavero Quantum’s technology will have a major impact on our global community, making sector-leading improvements and bringing financial savings to businesses. It is testament to the world-leading, innovative technology being driven by our region.”
