QNu Labs, a Bengaluru deep-tech company working on encryption that can survive the arrival of quantum computers, has raised Rs 200 crore in a Series A1 round. The round was co-led by the National Quantum Mission and Speciale Invest, with participation from Sony Innovation Fund, Gaja Capital and Artha Ventures.
Rs 375 crore raised so far
This round takes QNu Labs’ total capital raised to Rs 375 crore. The company had earlier picked up Rs 60 crore, about $7 million, in a Series A round led by the National Quantum Mission in April last year. Before that came $6.5 million in a pre Series A1 round led by Ashish Kacholia of Lucky Investments in December 2023.
The money will go into research and development, strengthening the core technology, and scaling sales across India and international markets.
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Why banks are worried about quantum
Today’s encryption protects everything from bank transfers to government files, and the maths behind it would collapse if a powerful enough quantum computer arrived. Security experts call the answer quantum safe cryptography, and startups in this field build the infrastructure layer for it using technologies like Quantum Key Distribution and Quantum Random Number Generation.
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Co-founded in 2016 by Srinivasa Rao Aluri and Sunil Gupta, QNu Labs was incubated at IIT Madras. It sells quantum safe infrastructure and platform solutions designed to slot into a client’s existing systems without forcing a rebuild. The company says its patented, certified and military grade products are already deployed by clients globally to secure critical infrastructure.
Part of a national mission
QNu Labs plans to contribute to an approved project funded under the RDI programme, building the technology backbone for India’s Quantum Secure and Sensing Networks. It also intends to extend its technology stack into quantum sensing and artificial intelligence, and to grow deployments across critical sectors as global demand for quantum safe migration rises.
What lies ahead
The awkward part of quantum safe security is that nobody knows the exact deadline. Quantum computers strong enough to break current encryption may be a decade away, or closer. That makes it a hard sell for a company that wants results this quarter, and an easy sell for anyone planning a decade ahead. India’s National Quantum Mission putting its own money into a private startup is a signal that the country wants to own this layer rather than import it.