Insider Brief
- Deteqt raised $5 million AUD in seed funding to advance its chip-scale quantum magnetometer, scale manufacturing, and prepare for initial commercial deployments.
- The company is developing compact, diamond-based magnetic sensors designed for deployment in drones, autonomous systems, and other field environments, targeting applications such as GPS-denied navigation.
- The funding reflects growing investor and defense-sector interest in quantum sensing as a dual-use technology with expanding real-world applications, including potential use cases in military and industrial settings.
PRESS RELEASE — Deteqt, an Australian deep tech company building one of the world’s most compact quantum magnetic sensors, has closed a $5M AUD seed round led by Main Sequence, with participation from ATP Fund, BOKA Capital, Beaten Zone Venture Partners, Uniseed, and the University of Sydney. The funding will be used to advance Deteqt’s next-generation field-ready product, scale diamond chip manufacturing, and grow the team.
Last week, reports emerged that a quantum magnetometry device may have been used in a US military rescue operation, detecting a human heartbeat from a distance via magnetic signature. Whether or not the specific claims hold up to scrutiny, the implications are clear: quantum sensing is moving to the field, with the applications extending far beyond what most people have imagined.
Electromagnetism is one of the fundamental forces of nature, governing everything from geological structures beneath the Earth’s surface to electrical signals in the human body. Deteqt is building the platform that changes what is possible: making the magnetic layer machine-readable and actionable.
“Magnetic fields permeate everything around us – every object, every geological formation, every living body,” said Dr Jim Rabeau, CEO and co-founder of Deteqt. “When we have been able to access these signals at all, the results have been profound – MRI, mineral exploration, brain imaging. But these are isolated breakthroughs, built on systems too large and expensive to deploy beyond a handful of controlled environments. Our chip-scale integration changes that entirely. We are bringing that same sensitivity into completely new environments and form factors, and when you can do that at scale, you unlock an entire layer of intelligence about the physical world – not just measuring it, but making it usable for machines to navigate, interpret, and act on in real time.”
Deteqt’s breakthrough is a chip-scale quantum magnetometer: an exquisitely sensitive sensor that combines a diamond crystal with a custom semiconductor chip, compact enough to be embedded in drones, autonomous vehicles, robots, and far beyond. The chip-scale form factor is what makes Deteqt unique and enables ubiquitous deployment: quantum-grade magnetic sensing manufactured using standard semiconductor processes, deployable wherever it’s needed.
“Deteqt is tackling one of the hardest problems in quantum technology: building sensors that are simultaneously sensitive enough to be useful and small enough to deploy at scale,” said Alejandra Romero, Investment Manager at Main Sequence. “What sets Deteqt apart is the combination of a chip-scale manufacturing path and the commercial traction they’ve built in less than eighteen months. The partner pipeline and the speed of execution are exceptional for a company at this stage.”
Deteqt’s lead application is GPS-denied navigation for defence platforms, where jamming in contested environments has created urgent, immediate demand for alternative positioning technology.
“The demand signal for GPS-independent navigation is no longer theoretical; it’s operational and urgent,” said Erik Thoresen, Partner at BOKA Capital, an AUKUS-aligned venture firm focused on dual-use and defence technology. “What drew us to Deteqt is that this isn’t a single-application company. The same chip-scale platform that solves positioning for defence opens entirely new categories across industries. Genuine dual-use technology with a credible manufacturing path is rare, and Deteqt has it.”
The funding will be deployed to advance Deteqt’s field-ready quantum magnetometer toward first commercial deployments and to grow the team to meet accelerating partner demand across Australia and globally.