Quantum Dice

A start-up developing a compact quantum random number generator for stronger encryption.

About Quantum Dice

Quantum Dice makes devices that produce truly random numbers. That sounds odd, but nearly all online security, from messaging apps to banking, depends on secret codes, and a secret code is only as strong as the randomness behind it. Ordinary computers create numbers by following rules, which makes them in principle predictable. Quantum Dice instead uses quantum physics, the science of the very small, to generate randomness that cannot be guessed. Its device is called a quantum random number generator, or QRNG.

The company is a spin-out from the University of Oxford, founded in 2020 and based in Oxford, with an office in central London. Its technology came from research in Oxford's Department of Physics, and the Institute of Physics gave it its Business Start-up Award in 2021. The founders met in 2019 on StEP, the university's eight-week student entrepreneurship programme, and became its first winning team. Sources name the founders as Dr Ramy Shelbaya (chief executive), Wenmiao Yu and George Dunlop, and one list also includes Marko von der Leyen and Zhanet Zaharieva. The university says the company has about 20 employees (undated) and a laboratory and office headquarters in central Oxford.

We did not find a formal mission statement. The closest is a description of its aim to fix a long-standing problem in computing, where rule-based systems struggle to produce consistently secure codes, by bringing true randomness to cybersecurity. That wording comes from a third-party write-up, not the company itself. A founder says the company has kept close ties with the University as it has grown.

Its core product is the QRNG, described as a compact device whose patented self-checking routine continuously measures how much real randomness it is producing. It reported working with BT Group on telecoms uses and building a space product for a satellite mission with the Singapore firm SpeQtral, and it is making smaller versions for Internet of Things devices (everyday connected gadgets). It also describes a newer line called ORBIT and Lagrange-0, which it calls a scalable probabilistic processing unit, aimed at hard puzzles such as delivery-route planning and chip design. It was also named in Plexal's Cyber Runway programme in October 2022.

We found no published graduate scheme, internship or apprenticeship, and no description of day-to-day culture. With a team of around 20 in physics, engineering and business, a company like this tends to value curiosity and strong science or maths foundations. That is our inference, not their claim. Check the Quantum Dice website for current openings.

What they do

• {'desc': 'Compact device producing truly random numbers for encryption.', 'title': 'Quantum random number generator'}
• {'desc': 'Work with BT Group and SpeQtral on secure communications.', 'title': 'Space and telecoms applications'}
• {'desc': 'A new type of processor aimed at hard optimisation problems.', 'title': 'Probabilistic computing (ORBIT)'}

Key facts

• Oxford University spin-out, founded 2020, based in Oxford with a London office
• Won the Institute of Physics Business Start-up Award 2021
• Founders met on Oxford StEP student entrepreneurship programme in 2019
• Plexal Cyber Runway member (Oct 2022); about 20 employees (undated)
• Early careers: none found

Website: www.quantumdice.io