Sorbonne quantum computing spin-out Welinq completes pre-seed funding round

The Paris-based Welinq startup has successfully completed its pre-seed funding round to commercialize the world’s most efficient quantum memories at an industrial standard. It will bring pivotal hardware to quantum computing and quantum communication infrastructures. 

Scalable quantum computers will be able to calculate exponentially faster and handle thousands of qubits (that’s short for quantum bits). The founders Tom Darras, Sorbonne University Professor Julien Laurat, CNRS Research director Eleni Diamanti and Jean Lautier-Gaud - who had previously collaborated in their academic careers – decided to join forces and created Welinq to provide solutions to the scale-up of quantum computing. 

By leveraging laser-cooled neutral-atom technology, a world-record quantum memory was demonstrated at Sorbonne University, with a storage-and-retrieval efficiency at 90%. This unique realization was developed by researchers at the Laboratoire Kastler Brossel (LKB) and the Laboratoire d’Informatique de Sorbonne Université (LIP6). 
In less than a year, the team has transformed this academic achievement into a promising start-up. In this endeavor, the founders have been accompanied by Deeptech Founders, the CNRS Innovation RISE program, Agoranov and the Creative Destruction Lab. The project has been awarded Grand Prix of the prestigious i-Lab French Innovation contest, has won the French Tech Tour Invest 2022, and has been selected as a Finalist of the Hello Tomorrow Global Challenge 2023. 

In this project, Welinq has gathered four public academic research institutions: Sorbonne University, CNRS, PSL-University and the Collège de France. Welinq’s team has been hosted on the campus of Sorbonne University since its founding in January 2022 and has just inaugurated the dedicated space for the company’s R&D activities. Welinq and SATT LUTECH have already entered into an exclusive license agreement for different patent families protecting results from the Kastler Brossel laboratory. These patent families will be used by Welinq in the development and commercialization of quantum memories and interconnects.

The startup has netted five million euros from two venture capitalists with expertise in quantum technologies, from Quantonation and Runa Capital, as well as receiving support from the Paris region, the European Commission, the French National Quantum Initiative and the French Banque Publique d’Investissement (BPI).
“Quantum memories have been identified today as the key missing hardware for the scale-up of quantum technologies. These devices must not only be deployed on the market quickly, but they must also show extremely high performance and robustness if we want them to truly impact industry and society”, says Tom Darras, CEO and co-founder of Welinq.

This article was first published on 6 February by Sorbonne University.