Nomad Atomics Receives $12 Million to Fund Quantum Sensor Technology

Insider Brief

• Nomad Atomics received $12 million (AUD) in funding from two deep-tech venture capital firms.
• The company is a leader in quantum sensing technology developed by atomic physicists from the Australian National University.
• Critical Quote: “Our devices will allow users to explore for deeper and small mineral deposits, allow for high resolution resource exploration from drones, allow for the more efficient and safe production from our underground mines, reduce the risk of drought by mapping and monitoring the flow and charge of aquifer systems, directly and cost effectively monitor the total mass of sequestered CO2, 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 received $12 million (AUD) in funding from two deep-tech venture capital firms, Blackbird Ventures and Right Click Capital, according to Business News Australia.

The company said the funds will help accelerate the commercialization of its field-deployable quantum gravimeters and accelerometers, which were developed by co-founders Kyle Hardman, Paul Wigley and Christian Freier.

“Transitioning quantum technologies from the lab environment to reliable operation in the field is challenging, and has hampered their commercialization and widespread use,” Hardman who is also Nomad Atomics CEO, told the business news site. “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 take up entire rooms in research labs and placing it all in a self-contained 20x20x30cm box to produce the world’s first survey-style absolute gravimeter.”

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

“Our devices will allow users to explore for deeper and small mineral deposits, allow for high resolution resource exploration from drones, allow for the more efficient and safe production from our underground mines, reduce the risk of drought by mapping and monitoring the flow and charge of aquifer systems, directly and cost effectively monitor the total mass of sequestered CO2, and increase navigation 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 several billion-dollar markets. According to Business News Australia, the resource exploration industry is about US$1 billion globally just for gravity exploration, which is only part of the US$50 billion-plus resource mapping, monitoring and optimization industry.

The company also expects double-digit growth in many of the 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 20-plus new roles as it scales a field ready sensor fleet, building two new prototype sensors for airborne exploration and inertial navigation. The company will also expand into the markets, such as CO2 sequestration and navigation.