A London-headquartered security company, founded in 2016, that builds chip-level security and software so that connected devices can be trusted from the silicon upwards.
Crypto Quantique makes security technology for the Internet of Things, the huge number of everyday connected devices from factory sensors to smart meters. Its approach is to build trust in at the very bottom, in the chip itself. Its QDID technology is a block of chip design that creates unique, unforgeable cryptographic keys on demand using the tiny physical differences of a standard chip, so the keys do not have to be stored where a hacker could find them. Its QuarkLink platform then manages those devices, handling onboarding, ongoing checks and revocation, and links the chip, the device and the cloud into one system. The company describes this as end-to-end IoT security.
Crypto Quantique was founded in 2016 and began life in the Entrepreneur First start-up programme. Dr Shahram Mossayebi, who has a PhD in physics and cryptography, is the chief executive and co-founder. Kumi Thiruchelvam, the chief commercial officer, is also named as a co-founder, and Dr Patrick Camilleri, a semiconductor designer, leads research and innovation. The company's stated aim is to make device security "a foundation rather than an add-on", and to replace the many separate suppliers involved in securing a device with a single solution. Its profile also describes its hardware and software as quantum-proof, and it was one of the early companies to use the word quantum for chip-level security.
The company is headquartered in London, and one profile says it also has offices in the United States, elsewhere in Europe and in Taiwan. We could not confirm which of those offices are staffed today, so treat the list as the company's own claim. Its partners include chip makers such as STMicroelectronics, Microchip and Renesas, and the component distributor Wurth Elektronik, which tells you it works close to the semiconductor industry. Its customers are described as including firms in defence, aerospace, energy and industrial IoT, though no individual customers were named.
On culture, the company has set out five pillars: transparency, support for one another, working hard, trust, and failing fast without fear. That is the company's own description and we have not checked how it feels from the inside. Reports of recent investment say it planned to grow its software development team, especially work on the key management service and cryptography.
The roles at a company like this include hardware and semiconductor designers, cryptographers, embedded and cloud software engineers, security testers, sales and partnerships staff, and operations people. Physics, maths, electronics and computer science are all useful starting points, and a curiosity about how things get hacked helps. Check the company's site for its current openings.
Website: www.cryptoquantique.com
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