Welinq
Quantum-networking hardware vendor commercialising laser-cooled rubidium quantum memories and entangled-photon sources as rack-mount appliances for distributed quantum computing. Spun out of Laboratoire Kastler Brossel (Sorbonne Universite / CNRS / ENS-PSL) on roughly two decades of cold-atom ensemble work in Julien Laurat's group. Positions its flagship QDrive memory as the interconnect layer for neutral-atom and photonic quantum processors, with development partnerships at Pasqal and Quandela and first deployments inside the EuroQCI national-testbed perimeter.
Timeline
Current flagship
QDrive — rack-mount cold-Rb quantum memory (room-temperature operation, >90% storage-and-retrieval efficiency, ~200 us storage)
Milestones
- 2026-04Quantum Insider podcast with CEO Tom Darras — full-stack networking vision, QDrive uptake, US/Asia expansion
- 2026-02Commercial launch of rack-mounted Entangled Photon Pair Source; first unit delivered to an undisclosed European institution. Positioned as a companion to QDrive for fibre-based interconnects between QPUs
- 2026-01First commercial QDrive sale in Europe — Institute of Physics, Slovak Academy of Sciences, for the skQCI testbed feeding into EuroQCI
- 2025-10Meet-Q project announced with Qphox and Sorbonne Universite — pairs Qphox microwave-to-optical transducers with Welinq QDrive memory to interface superconducting QPUs over optical fibre; funded by Quantum Delta NL and BPI France
- 2025-03QDrive launched as a commercial 19-inch rack-mount quantum-memory product — laser-cooled Rb-87 ensemble at room-temperature operation, >90% on-demand storage-and-retrieval efficiency for single photons, storage up to 200 us
- 2024-07Partnership with Quandela on custom quantum interconnects for photonic QPUs, under the AQADOC distributed-computing project
- 2024-04EIC Transition grant of EUR 2.5M to industrialise neutral-atom quantum memory products for the quantum internet, with Sorbonne Universite, CNRS and PSL
- 2024-04Strategic partnership with Pasqal to build quantum interconnects for neutral-atom QPUs; joint roadmap targets industrial QM prototype and 1,000-qubit QPUs by end-2024, 10,000-qubit machines by 2026-2027
- 2023-01EUR 5M pre-seed led by Quantonation with Runa Capital, plus support from Paris Region, France 2030 (national quantum plan), the European Commission and BPI France
- 2022Company founded as a spin-out of Laboratoire Kastler Brossel (Sorbonne Universite / CNRS / ENS-PSL) by Tom Darras (CEO), Julien Laurat, Eleni Diamanti and Jean Lautier-Gaud
Roadmap
- 2026 Scale QDrive deployments across EuroQCI national testbeds following the Slovak skQCI delivery; expand commercial footprint into the US and Asia source ↗
- 2026 Deliver tailored quantum interconnects under the Pasqal partnership as Pasqal's neutral-atom QPUs cross the 10,000-qubit class (2026-2027 joint roadmap) source ↗
- 2026 Demonstrate hybrid superconducting-to-optical interconnect with Qphox under the Meet-Q project — QDrive memory bridging Qphox microwave-to-optical transducers source ↗
Capability details
Quantum memory
- Platform
- rb-ensemble
- Storage time
- 0.2 ms
- Retrieval efficiency
- 0.9
- Fidelity
- —
- Wavelength
- —
- Mode capacity
- —
Networking
- Role
- vendor
- Products
- QDrive, Entangled Photon Pair Source
6 unverified fields
-
modalities.memory.fidelity -
modalities.memory.wavelength_nm -
modalities.memory.mode_capacity -
shareholders.stake_percent (all rows — private company, undisclosed) -
key_personnel.role (CTO not publicly named; Jean Lautier-Gaud role beyond "co-founder" not stated) -
milestones (no public disclosure of a Series A round through May 2026; only the 2023 pre-seed plus EIC Transition grant are sourced)
People
- Tom Darras — CEO & Co-founder (since 2022) ↗
- Julien Laurat — Co-founder (since 2022) ↗
- Eleni Diamanti — Chief Scientific Officer & Co-founder (since 2022) ↗
- Jean Lautier-Gaud — Co-founder (since 2022) ↗
- Alain Aspect — Scientific Advisory Board ↗
- Artur Ekert — Scientific Advisory Board ↗
- Kae Nemoto — Scientific Advisory Board ↗
- Peter Zoller — Scientific Advisory Board ↗
References
- paper https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-017-02775-8 Vernaz-Gris, Huang, Cao, Sheremet, Laurat — highly-efficient quantum memory for polarization qubits in a spatially-multiplexed cold atomic ensemble (Nature Communications 9, 363, 2018); foundational LKB result behind Welinq's memory platform
- press https://www.welinq.fr/blog/welinq-launches-its-world-record-storage-solution-for-quantum-computing-scale-out QDrive commercial launch announcement (March 2025) with headline performance figures
- press https://www.welinq.fr/blog/welinq-sells-qdrive-quantum-memory-in-europe First QDrive sale — Slovak Academy of Sciences, skQCI / EuroQCI deployment (January 2026)
- press https://www.welinq.fr/blog/eic-transition EIC Transition EUR 2.5M grant (April 2024)
- press https://www.pasqal.com/newsroom/pasqal-and-welinq-partnership/ Pasqal-Welinq strategic partnership on neutral-atom QPU interconnects (April 2024)
- press https://www.welinq.fr/blog/meet-q-announcement Meet-Q project with Qphox and Sorbonne Universite (October 2025)
- press https://www.welinq.fr/blog/welinq-scientific-board Welinq scientific advisory board (Aspect, Ekert, Nemoto, Zoller) and founders page