Paris, April 11, 2024,
In a landmark advancement for quantum networking, Welinq, a pioneering company in quantum interconnects, is delighted to announce the awarding of a highly-competitive EIC Transition grant of 2.5M€.
This substantial grant is a testament to the company’s innovative approach to neutral atom quantum memory, a technology which has been developed as part of the ramp-up phase of QIA's quantum flagship in the framework of Sorbonne University and CNRS.
This support from the European Union will give Welinq the ressources to develop key products to enable the much-anticipated quantum internet, a stepping stone towards the clustering of quantum computers.
An image of the Kastler Brossel laboratory at Sorbonne University, the source of Welinq's technological heritage.
Welinq is dedicated to becoming the European pacesetter in building the Quantum Internet by developing advanced quantum networking hardware based on Welinq’s world-record quantum memory. Welinq is also commited in ensuring its seamless integration and support within customer infrastructures. This support from the EIC Transition will help Welinq to translate cutting-edge research into industrial quantum information network products, which are critical for Europe’s strategic autonomy, and to advance Welinq’s qantum memory technology towards broader applications in distributed quantum computing.
"This support from the EIC marks an inflection point for quantum networking, and is therefore of utmost importance. The Quantum flaghsip has contributed to remarkable academic results which are today matured by Welinq to offer the first European quantum networking products ”
Tom Darras, CEO & Co-founder Welinq
"I'm excited to see such a product integrated into a European testbed for the first time. This is a major step forward for quantum communications and will enable projects already underway, such as FranceQCI, to deliver even more results. ” Eleni Diamanti, CSO Protocols Welinq, CNRS research director at the LIP6 laboratory of Sorbonne Université
Welinq is a pioneering Quantum Networking company that develops and commercializes quantum links based on laser-cooled neutral atom quantum memories to interconnect quantum computers in order to drastically increase their computational power and to ensure their deployment in clusters on customer premises. Welinq is a spin-out from Sorbonne Université, CNRS and PSL-University, founded in 2022 by Tom Darras, Prof. Julien Laurat, Dr. Eleni Diamanti and Jean Lautier-Gaud.