Quandela

Quandela is a company providing compact products for quantum applications, with a focus on quantum optics and supporting the emergence of scalable quantum technologies, such as quantum computing. Quandela is developing Prometheus, a generator of optical qubits based on single photons for use in quantum-secure communication networks and scalable quantum processors. Prometheus has delivered devices to industrial and academic partners around the globe.

Quandela was founded in June 2017 by French scientists Niccolo Somaschi, Pascale Senellart, and Valerian Giesz. The company is a spinoff of the Centre for Nanoscience and Nanotechnology at the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS). Quandela is located in Palaiseau, a southern suburb of Paris.

Quandela fabricates solid-state single-photon quantum light sources used for quantum photonics, quantum information research, and the development of quantum computers utilizing photon qubits. The French quantum hardware startup is planning to offer an online photonic-based quantum computer in 2022.

Quandela's core technology consists of semiconductor-based sources of quantum light that aim to increase the performance of optical quantum computing protocols. The company’s technology is the result of more than twenty years of research at CNRS and has been published several times in peer-reviewed journals such as Nature and Physical Review Letters.

Quandela is developing a single-photon source device called Prometheus, combining photonics and semiconductor quantum dots for quantum communication, computing, and sensing. The photon source produces a collection of emitted photons with high-efficiency rates that have the potential to enable photon-based quantum computers in the near term.

The technology is an entanglement system based on a chain of single photons contained in an optical fiber loop. The assembly of different components already offered to the market by Quandela, such as eDelight, 6–DMX, QShaper, and QFiber, has allowed the creation of a prototype quantum computer based on a high flux of single and indistinguishable photons for quantum research. From 2022, Quandela aims to make photonic-based quantum computers available on the cloud, promoting broad access to research and its computing resources.

Quandela has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program. On November 16th, 2021, Quandela raised €15M ($17M) in Series A funding from investment fund Omnes, the Defence Innovation Fund managed by Bpifrance and subscribed by the Defence Innovation Agency (AID), and the quantum technology dedicated fund Quantonation. The funding will help the company develop its photonic quantum computer, about the funding Quandela CEO Valérian Giesz stated:

This fundraising will enable us to accelerate the structuring of the team and the investment in new equipment to achieve our objectives with a first step: the availability in the cloud of the first complete optical quantum computer in 2022.