A Southampton spin-out from the University of Southampton that builds small cold-atom devices for precise timing, motion and magnetic sensing, including clocks and navigation tools that work without GPS.
Aquark Technologies builds compact quantum sensors based on cold atoms. A cold atom is an atom slowed down by lasers until it is almost still, which makes it behave in very predictable ways. Those atoms can be used as an extremely steady timekeeper, in an atomic clock, or as a very sensitive detector of movement and magnetic fields. Most cold-atom equipment lives in large university laboratories. Aquark is trying to shrink it so it can be used outside, on boats, drones and vehicles. Its main system, called AQuest, is built around a very small atom trap that the company calls the Super Molasses Trap, which does not need applied magnetic fields.
The company grew out of research at the University of Southampton. Andrei Dragomir, who is co-founder and chief executive, started it with Alexander Jantzen. Sources disagree slightly on the date, giving 2020 in one interview and 2021 in another report. Aquark's stated aim is to build "the most compact and energy-efficient cold atom core on the market", so that the technology can work in the field and not only in labs. It also talks about making the UK's first commercially available cold atom clock. Its founder has said in an interview that the idea began with a mistake in the laboratory, and that founders should not oversell their vision.
Aquark is based in Southampton on the south coast of England, close to the university where it began. A report in 2025 put the team at somewhere between 11 and 50 full-time employees, so it is still a small company where people know each other. It works with other UK organisations. It has tested a cold-atom trap underwater with the National Oceanography Centre, using the research submarine nicknamed Boaty McBoatface and an indoor test tank. It also trialled its technology at sea on the Royal Navy's HMS Pursuer, and it flew a cold-atom device on a drone. NATO's DIANA accelerator programme has also supported it.
We found little published about Aquark's day-to-day culture, so we have not guessed at it. What the public record shows is a practical, test-it-in-the-real-world attitude: trials on a ship, in a tank and on a drone rather than only in a lab. A team this small tends to include people who do several jobs. The sources name Mr Dragomir and a quantum systems engineer, Villius Atkocius, but not the wider team.
The roles at a hardware company like this include physicists who understand lasers and atoms, optical and electronics engineers who design the devices, software engineers who write the code that controls them, and systems engineers who make everything work together on a real vehicle. Business, finance and customer roles also matter once products are being sold. Physics, engineering, electronics and computing are the natural subjects to look at. The company's own website is the best place to see what it is currently working on.
Website: www.aquark.co.uk
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