News › Quan­tum Optics Jena · Seed fun­ding sucessfully completed

Digi­tal infor­ma­tion and com­mu­ni­ca­tion are inte­gral parts of ever­y­day life and ele­men­tary for society and the eco­nomy. Com­pu­ters, opti­cal fiber net­works and satel­lite links now con­nect entire con­ti­nents and form the basis of the glo­bal com­mu­ni­ca­ti­ons infra­struc­ture. Today, the secu­rity and sove­reig­nty of data is secu­red by com­plex mathe­ma­ti­cal algo­rithms and cryp­to­gra­phy solu­ti­ons. With the highly dyna­mic deve­lo­p­ment of quan­tum com­pu­ting, com­ple­tely new types of com­pu­ting power are beco­ming pos­si­ble, posing a threat to clas­si­cal encryp­tion methods.

Quan­tum phy­sics also pro­vi­des the ans­wer to this chall­enge: Based on phy­si­cal laws, quan­tum optics enables com­ple­tely new con­cepts for gene­ra­ting encryp­tion methods and the phy­si­cally secure trans­mis­sion of infor­ma­tion. Here, the secure key for the encryp­tion and exch­ange of infor­ma­tion is per­for­med by quan­tum phy­si­cal methods. This quan­tum key dis­tri­bu­tion (QKD) enables the phy­si­cally mea­sura­ble secure exch­ange of information.

Know-how from the Fraun­ho­fer IOF

The start-up »Quan­tum Optics Jena« (QOJ) is a spin-off of the Fraun­ho­fer Insti­tute for Applied Optics and Pre­cis­ion Engi­nee­ring IOF, which has alre­ady been suc­cessfully active in the field of quan­tum com­mu­ni­ca­tion and quan­tum ima­ging for seve­ral years.

»In recent years, we have been able to demons­trate tech­no­lo­gi­cal rea­di­ness for ent­an­gled pho­ton sources at the Fraun­ho­fer IOF, and as Quan­tum Optics Jena we are now com­bi­ning the natu­ral laws of quan­tum mecha­nics with exper­tise in the deve­lo­p­ment and pro­duc­tion of opti­cal sys­tems to offer soci­ally explo­ita­ble solu­ti­ons,« explains Dr. Oli­ver de Vries, CTO of the Thu­rin­gian start-up. »Our goal is to estab­lish a pio­nee­ring com­pany for tap-proof com­mu­ni­ca­tion in infor­ma­tion tech­no­logy in the heart of Ger­many,« adds CEO Dr. Kevin Füchsel.

Prof. Andreas Tün­ner­mann, direc­tor of the Fraun­ho­fer IOF, also wel­co­mes the entre­pre­neu­rial step of the for­mer employees: »Quan­tum tech­no­logy is one of the most ground­brea­king rese­arch and deve­lo­p­ment fields of our time. I am plea­sed to see how young foun­ders trans­fer their know­ledge gai­ned at Fraun­ho­fer IOF into their own com­pa­nies and thus into new innovations.«

Rapid deve­lo­p­ment of the start-up with the investors

The inves­tors are con­vin­ced of the idea: The tri­um­vi­rate of ELAS Tech­no­lo­gies GmbH, Fraun­ho­fer Tech­no­lo­gie-Trans­fer Fonds GmbH and betei­li­gungs­man­ge­ment Thü­rin­gen (bm|t) belie­ves in the future of quan­tum tech­no­lo­gies and invests a seven-digit amount in »Quan­tum Optics Jena GmbH«. »We are plea­sed to have put tog­e­ther an out­stan­ding team of inves­tors for Quan­tum Optics Jena in recent weeks. Now the com­pany has the neces­sary clout to build up and quickly imple­ment their ideas,« comm­ents Mat­thias Keckl from Fraun­ho­fer Tech­no­lo­gie-Trans­fer Fonds.

First pro­ducts in preparation

In the coming weeks, the team will work inten­si­vely on the rea­liza­tion of its first own pro­duct: a com­pact and high-per­for­mance ent­an­gled pho­ton source for quan­tum key dis­tri­bu­tion or quan­tum opti­cal expe­ri­ments. Dr. Oli­ver de Vries ela­bo­ra­tes: »In the next step we will be able to pro­vide our cus­to­mers with com­plete QKD sys­tems to coun­ter cyber-attacks and the threat of quan­tum computing.«

But that’s not all: The QOJ team con­ti­nues to work clo­sely with Fraun­ho­fer IOF and is curr­ently tin­ke­ring with a new pro­duct for quan­tum ima­ging, which could soon find appli­ca­tion in medi­cal tech­no­logy or mate­ri­als analysis.

Invol­ved partners

Fraun­ho­fer IOF

The Fraun­ho­fer Insti­tute for Applied Optics and Pre­cis­ion Engi­nee­ring IOF, based in Jena, Ger­many, con­ducts rese­arch into the fur­ther deve­lo­p­ment of light as a means of sol­ving a wide variety of pro­blems and appli­ca­tion sce­na­rios. The work of the rese­arch insti­tute, foun­ded in 1992, the­r­e­fore focu­ses on appli­ca­tion-ori­en­ted rese­arch into light gene­ra­tion, light gui­dance, and light mea­su­re­ment. Tog­e­ther with rese­ar­chers from basic rese­arch and indus­try, inno­va­tive solu­ti­ons are crea­ted that repre­sent a tech­no­lo­gi­cal advan­tage in sci­ence and indus­try and open up new fields of appli­ca­tion for photonics.

Betei­li­gungs­man­ge­ment Thü­rin­gen (bm|t)

Erfurt-based, bm|t beteili­gungs­man­age­ment Thürin­gen – a sub­sidiary of the Thürin­gen Devel­op­ment Bank, is the first address for Ven­ture Capi­tal and Pri­vate Equity invest­ments in Thürin­gen, Ger­many. bm|t cur­rently man­ages ten invest­ment funds with a total vol­ume of 440 mil­lion euros. bm|t invests in inno­v­a­tive com­pa­nies with strong growth poten­tial across all sec­tors and all pha­ses of the cor­po­rate lifecycle.

Fraun­ho­fer Tech­no­lo­gie-Trans­fer Fonds GmbH (FTTF)

The Fraun­ho­fer Tech­no­logy Trans­fer Fund is a ven­ture capi­tal fund with a volume of 60 mil­lion euros that pro­vi­des start-ups with Fraun­ho­fer tech­no­lo­gies with capi­tal of 250,000 to 5 mil­lion euros in the chal­len­ging early pha­ses. Sup­ported by the Euro­pean Invest­ment Fund (EIF) and the Fraun­ho­fer-Gesell­schaft, the FTTF stands by foun­ding teams as an entre­pre­neu­rial partner.

ELAS Tech­no­lo­gies GmbH (ELAS)
ELAS Tech­no­logy Invest­ment GmbH is a Ger­man-based but glo­bally ori­en­ted finan­cial inves­tor, with Head­quar­ters in Achim in the north of Ger­many. ELAS has been crea­ted to pro­vide finan­cial agi­lity and infra­struc­ture sup­port for pro­mi­sing enti­ties and orga­niza­ti­ons in the glo­bally favorable pho­to­nic and high-tech indus­tries. Ger­man industry’s own record and com­pe­ten­ces in these tech­no­logy areas is of course second to none.