Aquark Technologies: Our year so far
From announcing our €5m seed funding round to completing the successful trial of our technology at sea with the Royal Navy, 2024 has been a bumper year of momentum at Aquark.
These milestones sit alongside the growth of our brilliant team. We welcomed several new team members, including quantum engineers, our CSO and a new head of commercial operations. So in light of all the incredible achievements so far this year, we take a look back at the year so far and what 2025 has in store. With new products in development, it is set to be an exciting year.
Aquark Team: From left to right - Jonathan Woods, Chester Camm, Jonathan Emery, Alexander Jantzen, Matt Himsworth, Andrei Dragomir, Max Carey, Florence Concepcion & Vilius Atkočius
Seed funding
In September, we announced the closing of our seed funding round, led by the NATO Innovation Fund accompanied by other exceptional investors such as EIFO, UKI2S (managed by Future Planet Capital), and MBDA. This is the Alliance's first investment in a quantum technology company and the first investment into a DIANA accelerator company. Due to its scalability and portability and applications for defence, communications and civilian infrastructure, our technology will help the Alliance achieve its goal of securing “quantum-readiness”.
With this investment, we are tackling further challenges of miniaturisation and scalability, making our products more accessible. We are also continuing to expand our brilliant team.
Quantum Engineer Florence Concepcion in the Aquark lab
Andrei, Matt, Chester and Alex in the Aquark lab
Partnerships
Putting our technology to the test with the Royal Navy
This year we partnered with the Office for the Chief of Technology Officer (OCTO), Royal Navy, to put our cold atom technology to the test out at sea. With our Chief Operations Officer, Alexander Jantzen, playing captain for the day, we pushed the technology and the boat to their limits, recreating realistic conditions and manoeuvres on board a Royal Navy vessel.
The results showed cold atoms trapped continuously throughout each test and at all locations on board. After our successful drone trial at the end of 2022, the sea trial evidences yet another application and environment for quantum technology to have an impact.
Innovate UK's Gravity Array project with the University of Birmingham
Our partnership with the University of Birmingham as part of Innovate UK’s Gravity Array project saw researchers successfully test our unique technique of generating cold atoms without a magnetic field. This was the first time our patented method had been tested and achieved by an external party, demonstrating its robustness as the foundation of our technology.
Working with the University of Birmingham was instrumental in helping us develop our hardware to scale and deploy it. A massive thanks to our partners in Birmingham and Innovate UK.
The Aquark team out at sea testing their technology with the Royal Navy
Aboard the HMS Pursuer, the Aquark team tests their cold atom trap
Luxury transportation for Gravity Array. The tech was safely secured and had two bodyguards next to it for the entire journey!
The Aquark team out at sea testing their technology with the Royal Navy
Accelerators
Last year, we were one of the first 44 startups selected to join NATO’s first Defence Innovation Accelerator for the North Atlantic (DIANA) programme. The collaboration with industry and the opportunities to develop and accelerate our technology have been next to none. This year, we were excited to announce we will be joining Phase II of the programme! We can’t wait to continue building and collaborating with our fellow cohort members 🚀
As well as DIANA, we are over the moon to be part of the Airbus UK Space Accelerator. This is the first of its kind and forms part of the wider national initiative to develop the UK’s space ecosystem.
Aquark Co-founders Alexander Jantzen and Andrei Dragomir in Copenhagen for the NATO DIANA Phase I programme.
Andrei Dragomir attending the Airbus UK Space Accelerator programme of events.
Cold matter platforms for next-generation technology
AQlock
We are continuing the development towards the UK’s first commercially available cold atom clock following last year’s award of a £3.4m funding contract from Innovate UK to develop AQlock. Cold atom clocks have the potential to reduce the UK’s almost complete dependency on global navigation satellite systems, vulnerable to many types of disruption.
Second Gen Cold Atom Engine
Access to cold matter sources is limited. While proceeding in our miniaturisation journey, we are reaching a second milestone through the development of a miniaturised, light-weight and lower-power piece of cold matter hardware that works straight out of the box. Our Cold Atom Engine will increase access to advanced technologies for undergraduate students and researchers alike, help tackle the skills shortage and allow non-specialist industries to trial cold matter technologies.
AQurate
A robust and compact wavelength reference based on sub-Doppler spectroscopy. As a key element in our products, AQurate will speed the miniaturisation process whilst delivering the ruggedness that portable systems demand.
