Qunnect
Qunnect is a private quantum networking company that builds and operates room-temperature, atom-based entanglement distribution hardware (the Carina suite) and live metro-scale quantum networks over commercial telecom fiber for telecom operators, U.S. defense and federal agencies, national labs, and research institutions.
- Company typePrivate
- Founded2021
- HeadquartersNew York, United States
- Headcount11–50
- GTM typeB2B
- OfferingHardware or Manufacturing
What Qunnect does
Qunnect Inc. is a private, venture-backed quantum networking company headquartered at the Brooklyn Navy Yard in New York City that designs, manufactures, and operates hardware and live metro-scale entanglement-based quantum networks. The company's flagship product is the Carina product suite, a turnkey, rack-mounted entanglement distribution system integrating atom-based entangled-photon sources (Qu-SRC), Automatic Polarization Controllers (APCs), single-photon counting detectors with high-resolution time taggers, and White Rabbit time-synchronization electronics. A defining differentiator is that all hardware operates at room temperature in standard server-rack form factors, eliminating the cryogenic infrastructure required by competing platforms. Qunnect was the first to commercialize a room-temperature quantum memory (sold to Brookhaven National Laboratory in 2021) and has since deployed live entanglement-based networks including GothamQ in New York City, BearlinQ in Berlin (with Deutsche Telekom T-Labs), ABQ-Net in Albuquerque (with Roadrunner Venture Studios), and campus-scale networks at Montana State University and CERN.
The company monetizes through a mix of (i) hardware sales of the Carina suite and its components to enterprise, government, telecom, and research customers, (ii) direct U.S. government contracts and grants (a $1.85M U.S. Department of Energy award in May 2022 and an 18-month U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory contract awarded in May 2025), (iii) network deployment and managed-testbed services across its growing footprint of live commercial-fiber testbeds, and (iv) strategic industry co-development of Carina variants for financial services, energy, telecom, and defense verticals. Pricing is quote-based and not publicly disclosed, consistent with a sales-led enterprise and government field-sales motion. Strategic distribution is anchored by Cisco (orchestration software, Universal Quantum Switch integration, and the first public Fortune 500 investment in quantum networking infrastructure via Cisco Investments), Deutsche Telekom T-Labs (European telco channel), and Roadrunner Venture Studios (U.S. open-access commercialization). Over five years, Qunnect has raised approximately $22.5 million in disclosed funding from Airbus Ventures (lead), Cisco Investments, Quantonation, and SandboxAQ, plus DOE, NSF, and New Mexico State backing.
Qunnect firmographics
Firmographics- Name
- Qunnect
- Legal name
- Qunnect Inc.
- Website
- https://qunnect.inc
- Company type
- Private
- Founded year
- 2021
- Operating status
- Operating
- Headcount range
- 11–50 employees
- Short description
- Qunnect is a private quantum networking company that builds and operates room-temperature, atom-based entanglement distribution hardware (the Carina suite) and live metro-scale quantum networks over commercial telecom fiber for telecom operators, U.S. defense and federal agencies, national labs, and research institutions.
- Ownership category
- akta.pro rank
Qunnect industry classification
Industry- Product category
- Quantum Networking Hardware
- NAICS
- Fiber Optic Cable Manufacturing (335921)
- SIC
- Communications Equipment, Nec (3669)
- akta.pro primary industry
- Quantum Cloud Infrastructure & QPU Hosting (HDAGAIAA)
- akta.pro secondary industries
- Quantum Repeaters & Entanglement Distribution (HDAGAFAB), Spin QPU Systems (Silicon/Quantum Dots/Donors) (HDAGAAAE)
Keywords
Where Qunnect is headquartered
LocationHeadquarters
- HQ city
- New York
- HQ country
- United States
- HQ region
- North America
Offices4 records
Markets served
Qunnect business model
Business model- GTM type
- B2B
- Offering type
- Hardware or Manufacturing
- Cost components
- Technology or R&D, Personnel, Supply Chain, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Infrastructure
Revenue model
- Hardware Sales (Carina Product Suite): Sale of rack-mounted Carina entanglement distribution systems (entangled-photon sources, APCs, detectors, time taggers) to enterprise, government, telecom, and research customers. Standard server rack form factor designed for room-temperature deployment in commercial data centers.
- Government Contracts & Grants: Direct U.S. government procurement including an 18-month U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory contract (May 2025) for quantum networking technology advancement, plus a $1.85M U.S. Department of Energy award (May 2022) for Quantum Repeater product suite development and commercialization.
- Network Deployment & Testbed Services: Turnkey deployment of entanglement-based quantum networks (GothamQ in NYC, BearlinQ in Berlin via Deutsche Telekom T-Labs, ABQ-Net in Albuquerque, Montana State University, CERN) including integration services, ongoing support, and expansion across commercial fiber — building on the company's growing footprint of live metro-scale testbeds.
- Strategic Industry Co-Development: Turnkey Carina product variants co-developed with strategic industry partners across financial services, energy infrastructure, telecom, and defense sectors to enable next-generation industry use-case demonstrations.
Pricing tiers
| Model | Billing | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Other | — | Custom / quote-based enterprise pricing for Carina suite and network deployments |
Go-to-market motion4 records
Distribution channels4 records
Marketing channels7 records
Qunnect product offering
Product offeringCore offering
Qunnect builds turnkey, rack-mounted quantum networking hardware — anchored by its flagship Carina product suite — that generates, distributes, and stabilizes entanglement over deployed commercial telecom fiber at room temperature. The company also deploys and operates live entanglement-based metropolitan quantum networks (GothamQ in NYC, BearlinQ in Berlin, ABQ-Net in Albuquerque) and sells the world's first commercial room-temperature quantum memory. Customers include telecom operators, defense agencies, national laboratories, and research institutions.
Product overview
Qunnect offers a unified quantum networking hardware platform built around its flagship Carina product suite, a turnkey, rack-mounted entanglement distribution system that integrates Qu-SRC atom-based entangled-photon generators, Automatic Polarization Controllers (APCs), third-party single-photon detectors, time taggers, and White Rabbit synchronization electronics. The core platform powers several deployed commercial quantum networks: the GothamQ testbed in New York City, the BearlinQ network in Berlin (with Deutsche Telekom T-Labs), ABQ-Net in Albuquerque (with Roadrunner Venture Studios), and a campus-scale entanglement network at Montana State University. Complementing Carina are the legacy room-temperature Quantum Memory (the first commercial quantum memory, sold in 2021) and the in-development Quantum Repeater Product Suite (supported by a U.S. Department of Energy award), which together target long-distance secure communication and the future quantum internet.
Differentiator
Problem solved
Functional benefit
Brands
- Carina: Flagship turnkey entanglement distribution product suite integrating atom-based entangled-photon generators, single photon counting detectors, adaptive polarization compensation, and orchestration into a single rack-mount unit. First deployed to create Qunnect's GothamQ network and powers live quantum networks in NYC and Berlin.
- GothamQ
Products and services
- Carina Product Suite Turnkey, rack-mounted quantum entanglement distribution system integrating atom-based entangled-photon generators (Qu-SRC), single-photon counting detectors with high-resolution time tagging, adaptive polarization compensation (APCs), and entanglement validation/orchestration. Deployable at room temperature over standard telecom fiber for up to 100 km spans with >99% fidelity and 24/7 operational capability. Target customers: telecom operators, defense agencies, national labs, and research institutions.
- Room-Temperature Quantum Memory First-ever commercially sold room-temperature quantum memory, enabling quantum communication without the ultra-cold infrastructure required by traditional systems. Foundational capability supporting future quantum repeaters and long-distance quantum communication. Target customers: national laboratories and research institutions.
- GothamQ Quantum Network New York City-based entanglement-based quantum networking testbed running over 17.6–34 km of deployed commercial fiber connecting Brooklyn and Manhattan; first quantum network of its kind to run live entanglement-based protocols on commercial telecom fiber in NYC. Target users: quantum networking researchers, startups, and enterprise collaborators.
- BearlinQ Quantum Network Berlin-based entanglement distribution quantum network deployed with Deutsche Telekom's T-Labs over Deutsche Telekom fiber; achieved stable 30 km entanglement distribution at 99%+ fidelity for 17 days, later expanded to 100 km. Target users: Deutsche Telekom and European telecom/research customers.
- ABQ-Net Open-Access Quantum Network America's first open-access, entanglement-based quantum network located in Albuquerque, New Mexico; provides full-stack quantum networking testbed capabilities for startups and researchers to validate technologies on live, commercial fiber and systems. Target users: quantum startups, researchers, defense/finance/telecom/energy companies.
- Quantum Repeater Product Suite Product suite in development to advance quantum-secure communication protocols and quantum internet infrastructure for long-distance secure communication; includes quantum memory and entanglement source devices. Target customers: telecom operators, defense agencies, and government organizations.
Quantifiable outcome
- 99%+ polarization fidelity sustained in automated 24/7 operation over deployed metro fiber
- +5 more outcomes
Companies that use Qunnect
Customer profileNamed customers9 records
Segments3 records
Ideal customer profiles4 records
Qunnect technology and API
TechnologyTechnology focussed Yes
API detail
- Has API
- No
- API docs
- API detail
Core technology
AI maturity
App detail
Integration3 records
Feature7 records
Qunnect partnerships and signals
Strategic signalPartnerships
Twelve partnerships are on record, tiered ecosystem partner, key ecosystem partner, flagship strategic partner, infrastructure partner, major strategic partner, strategic consortium partner, major government partner and major partner.
- Central New Mexico Community College (CNM)ecosystem partnerIndustry partnership with CNM's Quantum Technician Bootcamp (launched September 2025, the first quantum workforce development program of its kind in the U.S.). Qunnect has hired multiple bootcamp graduates, supporting the ABQ-Net talent pipeline.
- Aliro Quantumkey ecosystem partnerAmong the first users of ABQ-Net in Albuquerque; integrating Aliro's network management software and real-time key generation OS with Qunnect's Carina entanglement distribution systems for joint quantum security service deployment and validation.
- Ciscoflagship strategic partnerJoint entanglement swapping demonstration (Feb 18, 2026) on Qunnect's GothamQ testbed combining Qunnect Carina hardware with Cisco's Universal Quantum Switch and orchestration software stack (the 'Digital Air Traffic Controller'). Cisco also invested via Cisco Investments. Cisco's Reza Nejabati (Head of Quantum Research) and Cisco Quantum Labs collaborate on quantum networking interoperability.
- QTD Systemsinfrastructure partnerHosts the central Manhattan hub at 60 Hudson Street data center that anchors Qunnect's GothamQ testbed connecting Brooklyn and Manhattan. Provides the colocation data center environment used for the Cisco entanglement swapping demonstration.
- Roadrunner Venture Studiosmajor strategic partnerCo-developed ABQ-Net, New Mexico's first entanglement-based quantum network, backed by $25M state investment via Roadrunner and the New Mexico Economic Development Department. ABQ-Net is part of Roadrunner's broader Quantum Lab and the state's $300M+ quantum economy initiative.
- Elevate Quantumstrategic consortium partnerMember of the Elevate Quantum consortium spanning New Mexico, Colorado, and Wyoming — designated a Regional Technology and Innovation Hub by the U.S. Department of Commerce. Aligns Qunnect with workforce, talent, and capital efforts across the Mountain West region.
- U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL)major government partnerAwarded Qunnect an 18-month contract in May 2025 to advance components of its quantum networking technology for national defense applications, representing a significant vote of confidence in entanglement-based networking.
- CERN Quantum Technology Initiative (CERN QTI)major partnerJoint collaboration at CERN's newly inaugurated Quantum Networking Lab exploring advanced metrology, time-synced entanglement tests, and co-propagation of classical and quantum channels. Aligns with CERN's White Rabbit time-synchronization technology.
- Single Quantummajor partnerNetherlands-based developer of superconducting nanowire single-photon detectors; collaborating with Qunnect at CERN QTI's new quantum networking lab. Single Quantum's detectors integrated with White Rabbit time-synchronization achieve sub-nanosecond alignment of distant nodes. Qunnect maintains a branch in Delft, Netherlands.
- Montana State University (MSU / QCORE)major partnerMSU deployed the Carina product suite to establish the first quantum entanglement network in the Northwestern United States, aligned with the launch of MSU's QCORE quantum research initiative. MSU has worked with Qunnect technology for over a year, integrating entanglement distribution with on-campus quantum computers and sensing technologies.
- Deutsche Telekom (T-Labs)flagship strategic partnerJoint BearlinQ deployment in Berlin (since 2024) using Qunnect Carina hardware integrated into Deutsche Telekom's commercial fiber. T-Labs and Qunnect demonstrated quantum teleportation over 30 km of commercial fiber in January 2026 with 90% average fidelity; BearlinQ subsequently expanded to 100 km. Demonstrations jointly shown at MWC Barcelona 2026.
- U.S. Department of Energymajor government partnerAwarded Qunnect $1.85M to support development and commercialization of Quantum Repeater product suite for quantum-secure communication protocols and quantum internet infrastructure.
Scale indicators15 records
Recent moves8 records
Expansion highlights6 records
Qunnect competitors and assessment
Company assessmentDirect peers
- Aliro Quantum: Boston-based quantum network software company. Aliro is among the first users of Qunnect's ABQ-Net testbed, and both companies target the same quantum networking infrastructure customer segments in defense, finance, and telecom, making them direct commercial and technical peers.
- PsiQuantum: PsiQuantum builds photonic quantum computers and is a major player in photonic interconnect and quantum repeater research. While primarily focused on computing rather than networking, its photonic stack overlaps with Qunnect's entanglement distribution domain and it competes for the same deep-tech capital and talent.
- Quantum Computing Inc. QCi is a publicly traded quantum computing and networking company pursuing similar U.S. federal, defense, and telecom customers. While its product focus spans optimization and sensing in addition to networking, it competes with Qunnect for the same government contracts, technical talent, and channel partners.
Broad incumbents
- Cisco (Quantum Labs): Cisco Investments is both an investor in and strategic partner of Qunnect, and Cisco's Quantum Labs researches entanglement distribution and quantum-secure networking. This makes Cisco both a channel partner and a potential incumbent competitor as it broadens its quantum networking portfolio.
- IBM Quantum: IBM Quantum operates one of the largest commercial quantum computing platforms and conducts extensive quantum networking research. Its scale, enterprise relationships, and federal government contracts make it a broad incumbent peer that competes for similar customer and partner mindshare.
Emerging players
- Atom Computing: Atom Computing develops neutral-atom quantum computers and conducts research on quantum memory and networking, with several U.S. government contracts. While its primary product is the computer itself, the underlying atomic physics platform overlaps with Qunnect's atom-based entanglement source technology, making it an adjacent emerging peer.
Market position
Strengths3 records
Weaknesses3 records
Competitive moat6 records
Key risks4 records
Key highlights5 records
Customer concentration
Qunnect social profiles
Digital presenceQunnect financial estimates
Financial estimateRevenue estimate
Valuation estimate
Qunnect leadership team
Management profileNumber of profiles
Profiles6 records
Qunnect subsidiaries and ownership
Company hierarchySubsidiaries1 record
Qunnect funding detail
Funding detailFunding overview
Funding rounds7 records
Investors12 records
Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Qunnect M&A and investment
M&A and investmentM&A
Investments
M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Frequently asked questions about Qunnect
What does Qunnect do?
Qunnect builds turnkey, rack-mounted quantum networking hardware — anchored by its flagship Carina product suite — that generates, distributes, and stabilizes entanglement over deployed commercial telecom fiber at room temperature. The company also deploys and operates live entanglement-based metropolitan quantum networks (GothamQ in NYC, BearlinQ in Berlin, ABQ-Net in Albuquerque) and sells the world's first commercial room-temperature quantum memory. Customers include telecom operators, defense agencies, national laboratories, and research institutions.
Is Qunnect a public or private company?
Qunnect is a private company. It is classified as venture growth investor backed and is currently operating.
When was Qunnect founded?
Qunnect was founded in 2021. It employs 11 to 50 people.
Where is Qunnect based?
Qunnect is headquartered in New York, United States, in the North America region.
How does Qunnect make money?
Four revenue lines are on record. Hardware Sales (Carina Product Suite) is the primary driver. The others are government Contracts & Grants, network Deployment & Testbed Services and strategic Industry Co-Development.
Who are Qunnect's main competitors?
Direct peers on record are Aliro Quantum, PsiQuantum and Quantum Computing Inc.. Broad incumbents are Cisco (Quantum Labs) and IBM Quantum. Atom Computing is listed as an emerging player.
Does Qunnect have an API?
No public API is recorded for Qunnect.
What industry is Qunnect in?
Qunnect's product category is Quantum Networking Hardware. Its primary akta.pro industry code is HDAGAIAA, Quantum Cloud Infrastructure & QPU Hosting, with a secondary code of HDAGAFAB, Quantum Repeaters & Entanglement Distribution. Its NAICS code is 335921 and its SIC code is 3669.