Nomad Atomics Receives $12 Million to Fund Quantum Sensor Technology

Insider Summary

• Nomad Atomics received $12 million (AUD) in funding from two deep technology venture capital firms.
• The company is a leader in quantum sensing technology developed by atomic physicists from the Australian National University.
• Key Quote: “Our device will enable users to explore deeper and smaller mineral deposits, enable high-resolution exploration of resources from drones, enable more efficient and safe production from our underground mines, reduce drought risk by mapping and monitoring flows and payload aquifer systems, monitor directly and cost-effectively the total mass of CO2 sequestered, and increase navigation certainty in GNSS-denied scenarios by providing zero drift and zero bias accelerometers.” —Christian Freier, CTO
• Image: Nomad Atomics

Nomad Atomics, a quantum sensor technology developed by atomic physicists from the Australian National University (ANU), announced it has received $12 million (AUD) in funding from two deep-tech venture capital firms, Blackbird Ventures and Right Click Capital, according to Australian Business News.

The company says the funding will help accelerate the commercialization of its field-usable quantum gravimeter and accelerometer, which was developed by co-founders Kyle Hardman, Paul Wigley and Christian Freier.

“Transporting quantum technology from a lab environment to reliable operation in the field is a challenge, and has hindered its commercialization and widespread use,” Hardman, also CEO of Nomad Atomics, told the business news website. “We founded Nomad to address this challenge, by developing robust sensors with reduced size, weight, and power requirements to enable real-world applications – taking technology that would occupy an entire room in a research lab and placing it all in a self-contained 20x20x30cm box to produced the world’s first survey-style absolute gravimeter.”

Nomad’s unique quantum sensors could find their way into industries such as power, energy, defense and space.

“Our device will enable users to explore deeper and smaller mineral deposits, enable high-resolution exploration of resources from drones, enable more efficient and safe production from our underground mines, reduce drought risk by mapping and monitoring flows and charges. aquifer systems, directly and cost-effectively monitor the total mass of CO2 sequestered, and improve navigational certainty in GNSS-denied scenarios by providing zero drift and zero bias accelerometers,” Freier, CTO, told the business news site.

The company claims its sensors will target a multi-billion dollar market. According to Business News Australia, there is an estimated US$1 billion resource exploration industry globally just for gravity exploration, which is only part of a more than US$50 billion resource mapping, monitoring and optimization industry.

The company also expects double-digit growth in the many industries that will use quantum sensing.

Nomad Atomics is expected to hire more workers. The company told the business news site that it expects to hire more than 20 new roles as it increases its fleet of field-ready sensors, building two new prototype sensors for air exploration and inertial navigation. The company will also expand into markets, such as CO2 sequestration and navigation.