Sunil Gupta, Co-founder & CEO ofQNu Labs, chronicles the progress of QNu Labs in an exclusive interview with Harichandan Arakali from Forbes India.
Here are the excerpts from the interview:
In 2016, India moved from a cash-basedeconomy to a digital economy. India saw a surge in internet use and onlineproducts and services, including online banking and e-commerce. As technologyspecialists, we, the founders of QNu, envisioned technologies like 5G,blockchain, IoT, and robotics converging in the span of five years. We realisedthat in such a hyperconnected digital world, trust becomes paramount.
“In a hyperconnected digital world, trust is important.
The rise in digital transactions alsosaw an increase in the number of data breaches and data hacks. It was evidentthat systems lacked the required security mechanisms which consumers can trust.One cannot have a digital economy without digital trust.
We saw this as a significant problem inthe thriving digital economy and resolved to provide a solution. We understoodthat the best solution is to replace classical security with quantum physicsbased quantum-security.
We were very clear about founding adeep tech venture. India did not have an established deep tech startup,completely backed by research, before QNu. The right talent was hard to find,not many understood the science we were working on, and the knowledge waslimited to academic circles. It was a challenging start!
Our well-wishers tried to dissuade usfrom starting the venture in India. They suggested that western countries wouldprovide fertile ground. But, we were convinced about India. We knew that ifIndia powers its digital growth engine, it needs digital security. So, we madeIndia our base.
“If India powers its digital growth engine, it needs digital security.
Any deep-tech company has to navigatethrough four stages of growth:
We spent a considerable amount oftime–almost two years–in establishing the Proof of Science. We then collaboratedwith Cisco Launchpad for our technological development. Their guidance andconducive pressure to perform within set timelines helped us achieve our goals.In October 2018, we launched our first (and India's first) quantum-securityproduct.
We were fortunate enough to receivewhole-hearted support from the believers in our work and objectives. Our angelfunders not only provided us with the necessary financial support but alsomotivated and encouraged us to keep going forward. We raised about $5M in apre-seed funding round from these angel investors.
The challenge, which I see as anopportunity, with deep tech is that a company needs money not just to succeedbut also to experiment and fail. Success is an iterative process. Our funderswere patient and wise to understand this completely.
“Deeptech needs money not just to succeed but also to experiment and fail.
We are the second company in the worldto have developed three unique products in this technology - quantum random number generator, quantum key distribution, and post-quantum cryptography. These three products cast a wide security net for defence and criticalinfrastructure (such as banks, healthcare, and data centre) problems.
Indian Defence is our biggest customer.Along with the Indian Army, we are also trying to set up systems for the IndianNavy.
We have a few customers in the MiddleEast, a customer in Belarus who is using our products for securing theblockchain, and many more.
We have interesting use cases for ourproducts. I would like to mention one in particular. One of our customers didnot want its fleet of ships to be bonded by the LAN cables that run across thedockyard from the ship to the control base. They wanted a WiFi connection. But,WiFi is not an inherently secure form of communication. So, we created aquantum-secure VPN tunnel for them. It allowed the ships to move about freelyin the dockyard.
“Weachieved mobility by creating a quantum-based trust in the WiFi system.
We are in the process of developingenterprise solutions. Our focus is developing unique and widely usableapplications for enterprises.
We are now in the stage of “Proof ofScale”. Our focus is to build applications and products that can be used by themasses. We are moving from a focused, targeted, niche market to a mainstream.So, these are exciting times for us!
QNu Labs is thankful to Harichandan Arakali and Forbes India team for hosting Sunil Gupta.