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“Ultra high-tech” investor back Swiss quantum firm

The company is a Geneva University spin-off. id Quantique

Two-year old, id Quantique, a University of Geneva spin-off firm, has raised SFr 1.56 million from a recently established venture investment firm, i2i Holding SA, based in Luxembourg.

The financing gives the company capital to develop its new quantum cryptography product and two new board members, both from i2i.

Founded in 2002, the company is commercialising a breakthrough in quantum physics to develop secure communications systems based on quantum cryptography.

One of its first trial customers is a Geneva bank, using the system for highly secure point-to-point communication.

In a quantum cryptography solution, any attempt to eavesdrop disturbs the optical transmission, destroying the data, which many believe will make it impossible to crack.

i2i says it specialises in investments in companies with “ultra high tech” intellectual property portfolios.

3D-display

It has a majority stake in a German startup called SeeReal GmbH, which makes 3D-display systems, as well as two other portfolio firms, which are both based in Denmark.

One of the principals of i2i is Bo Kroll, who successfully sold his London-based firm IFX Group Plc in Great Britain to Aether Systems in 2000.

Kroll is an active investor and as a board member will be able to offer id Quantique the kind of support required by high-tech early stage companies.

id Quantique negotiated license agreements with the University of Geneva covering two important patents relating to quantum cryptography, granting the university a minority participation in the capital of the company.

The young firm spins out of the Group of Applied Physics of the University of Geneva, Switzerland. It was profitable in 2003, which was its second year of business.

by Valerie Thompson

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