QWave Capital backs ID Quantique with $5.6m

The Russian-American venture fund will now hold a minority stake in Switzerland-based ID Quantique, which develops quantum cryptography solutions.

QWave was launched in 2012 and focuses on early-stage investments in physics and material science start-ups. QWave's fund is managed by a board of scientists and entrepreneurs.

The investment in ID Quantique is the vehicle's first in the quantum sector, but the fund's fourth transaction overall.

In 2003, ID Quantique received a €1m funding round from i2i venture, a venture capital fund based in Luxembourg.

Company
ID Quantique develops network security solutions for banks, governments and other enterprises in Switzerland and the rest of Europe. Furthermore, the firm produced the world's first commercial off-the-shelf Quantum Key Distribution (a method in which one party sends an encoded cryptographic key to another party) solution for long-term data security.

The firm was founded in 2001 and is based in Geneva.

People
Grégoire Ribordy is ID Quantique's CEO. Serguei Kouzmine is managing partner at QWave and will now sit on ID Quantique's board.

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