Leading quantum cryptography (PQC) startup PQShield today announced it has raised $37 million in Series B funding, as organizations and businesses rush to become “quantum ready” ahead of the release of the first PQC standards in the coming weeks.
Today’s NISQ era While quantum computers do not pose a threat to traditional encryption methods, future machines are perceived as such by the NSA and others. Cybersecurity threats.
Once quantum computers become powerful enough, they will be able to break most encryption methods, hence the need for quantum-resistant cryptography.
PQC aims to develop a new encryption system that is secure against cyber attacks using quantum computers.
“Where security matters”
Already eager to upgrade to PQC capabilities are “security-critical industries,” Dr. Ali El Kaafarani, founder and CEO of PQShield, told TNW. “Industries that deal with sensitive data, sensitive communications, sensitive devices.”
Similarly, El Kaafarani said, there are companies that have long-lived products being designed today that will likely remain on the market for 15 or 25 years, such as those in the semiconductor industry.
“They’re putting our hardware design IP into chips and equipping those chips with quantum-resistant encryption,” El Kaafarani said, adding that those higher up the supply chain have already started that process.
PQShield provides both hardware and software solutions (and in some cases does the “necessary close work” to help customers understand the problem).
PQShield partners with companies such as AMD, Microchip Technologies, Lockheed Martin, Collins Aerospace, Lattice Semiconductor, and Sumitomo Electric, to name just a few.
One reason for the surge in demand for PQC is that the US National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is set to approve a standard for quantum cryptography next month. “All the other standards bodies were still waiting for this so they could publish guidelines and tell their fields, ‘Now you can start adopting quantum cryptography,'” El Kaafarani said.
Moreover, the U.S. government is mandating that all contractors for national security systems comply with these standards by 2030, further stimulating commercial incentives.
Quantum cryptography elite
Finding talent in encryption is hard. Finding talent in PQC is even harder. Yet PQShield managed to attract 45 of the top minds in this emerging field, the largest concentration of talent in the industry to date.
“If you look at the crypto community as a whole, it’s not a very large community. We basically know each other’s names,” El Kaafarani says, “but the first set of cryptographers that we hired were really some of the best talent in the world, and they attract other people. If you create the right environment for talented people, they attract each other.”
Reduce risk from future threats to your data
The funding round was led by venture capital firm Addition, with participation from new investors Chevron Technology Ventures, Legal & General, and Braavos Capital, as well as existing backer Oxford Science Enterprises.
Like many deep tech companies, getting investors on board for what is being called “post-quantum” wasn’t the easiest process. Identifying the right investors and communicating why they need to be protected, even though what they need to be protected doesn’t exist, was key in PQShield’s fundraising journey.
“We’re not solving a problem that doesn’t exist yet, we’re mitigating the risk. Our problem is not quantum computing; our problem is the risk associated with quantum computing,” El Kaafarani said.
The company was founded in 2018 and currently has 70 employees across 10 countries. PQShield plans to use the funding to drive innovation as well as strengthen its sales team.
“Perfect security doesn’t exist. As much as we wish it did, it doesn’t exist,” El Kafarani said. “That’s why we have to keep innovating and coming up with solutions to all the problems we face in the cybersecurity space.”
“We care about our data. My own data, my personal data, my family’s data, my children’s data,” El Kaafarani added, emphasizing PQShield’s mission to make the world a safer place — something we should all care about more now and in the age of quantum computing.