Quantum Dice, a spinout from the University of Oxford’s world-renowned quantum optics laboratory, secured a £2.09 million Innovate UK project to expand its quantum random number generator (QRNG) product set for enterprise and industrial IoT gateway solutions.
The project, which is part of UKRI’s Commercialising Quantum Technologies Challenge supported by the Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund, was awarded by Innovate UK through its investment partnership programme with IP Group.
The funding enables Quantum Dice to accelerate its development of a self-certifying QRNG in a compact form factor to cater to enterprise and IoT applications that require robust and high-quality randomness generation in challenging and constrained environments. Applications such as factory automation, automotive systems, and critical national infrastructure, including power reactors, demand a high level of security and reliability to protect the distributed edge devices within their networks.
Random numbers form the bedrock of data encryption algorithms, ensuring the protection of our most valuable data. As the world becomes increasingly interconnected, cybersecurity plays an ever-more important role in safeguarding personal information and maintaining the proper functioning of many aspects of modern society, and random number generation serves as a fundamental building block.
One of the significant challenges in QRNG development is achieving a balance between robustness against environmental disturbances and a high generation rate. Existing commercial QRNG offerings often prioritise one aspect over the other. Quantum Dice has developed a solution that addresses both challenges simultaneously, offering a QRNG that ensures high-quality randomness at world-leading generation rates, while withstanding environmental noise.
The self-certifying QRNG, which uniquely combines security, speed, and compactness, meets the stringent low SWAP (size, weight, and power consumption) requirements needed for easy integration into existing enterprise and industrial-IoT security solutions. This integration empowers customers to expedite the development and commercial deployment of quantum-enhanced security solutions, providing a reliable source of secure encryption keys.
As well as combining best-in-class security and speed with a compact form factor, the product also takes advantage of Quantum Dice’s unique patented source-device independent self-certification (DISC™) protocol, which takes the protection against hardware attacks to a new level and ensures quantum randomness for encryption keys.
The development of the compact QRNG is the result of the hard work and expertise of the Oxford-based company’s dedicated team. Their commitment to innovation and solving complex security challenges has positioned Quantum Dice at the forefront of QRNG technology.
The Quantum Dice team’s work has garnered international recognition since spinning out of the University of Oxford in April 2020. For example, it won the Institute of Physics (IOP) Business Start-Up Award in 2021, was selected for the competitive Intel Ignite deep tech accelerator programme, and three of its founders were selected to feature on the Forbes 30 Under 30 Europe 2023 list in the Technology category.
“The importance of government funding in enabling disrupting and cutting-edge innovation cannot be overstated. We are immensely grateful to Innovate UK, and to our investors, for their continued support of our mission of protecting a connected future and enabling reliable cybersecurity wherever it is needed.”
“We’re delighted to be helping Quantum Dice continue to grow as a company, translate their excellent ideas into products, and establish themselves in this strategically important supply-chain.”
– Roger McKinlay, Challenge Director Quantum Technologies, Innovate UK
Learn more about Quantum Dice and its DISC™ QRNG technology.
About Quantum Dice
Quantum Dice aims to protect a connected future by harnessing the fundamental quantum properties of light to enable secure encryption. Leveraging its patented source-device independent self-certification (DISC™) protocol, Quantum Dice is developing the world’s first compact, high-speed, and continuously self-certifying quantum random number generator (QRNG).
Our technology is suitable for a wide range of applications ranging from protecting terrestrial networks to providing quantum-secure entropy for satellite and IoT systems.
Founded in April 2020, Quantum Dice is an award-winning venture-backed spinout from Oxford University’s world-renowned quantum optics laboratory. It’s there where the architecture for our innovative quantum source of entropy was originally invented.
Our mission is to provide trusted and secure randomness leveraging the unique properties of quantum systems along with our patented DISC™ protocol.
For media enquiries, please contact: info@quantum-dice.com
