{"id":22209,"date":"2025-10-22T09:41:11","date_gmt":"2025-10-22T01:41:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cde.nus.edu.sg\/ece\/?post_type=nus-news&p=22209"},"modified":"2025-10-22T10:12:32","modified_gmt":"2025-10-22T02:12:32","slug":"nus-ece-startup-squareroot8-technologies-featured-on-straits-times","status":"publish","type":"nus-news","link":"https:\/\/cde.nus.edu.sg\/ece\/news\/nus-ece-startup-squareroot8-technologies-featured-on-straits-times\/","title":{"rendered":"NUS ECE startup, Squareroot8 Technologies featured on Straits Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

NUS spin-off Squareroot8 Technologies is launching a chip-based Quantum Random Number Generator (QRNG) that leverages intrinsic quantum randomness to produce high-entropy keys, aiming to make protected systems almost unhackable.<\/span><\/p>\n

The company began QRNG research in 2018 at NUS ECE with Assoc Prof Charles Lim, received a $3 million NRF fellowship\/grant in 2019, licensed core technology from NUS in 2020, and secured US$3 million in seed funding in 2022.<\/span><\/p>\n

Squareroot8 is in talks to pilot its quantum cryptography tech with undisclosed firms in healthcare, defence, and finance\u2014sectors with high sensitivity to data breaches and regulatory requirements.<\/span><\/p>\n

QRNG addresses a critical security gap: classical encryption often relies on predictable, math-based algorithms that could be broken by quantum computers, which some experts expect to threaten current cryptosystems by around 2030.<\/span><\/p>\n

The broader quantum computing opportunity is substantial, with Boston Consulting Group estimating US$450\u2013850 billion in economic value by 2040, spanning drug discovery, materials, and advanced AI\u2014while also escalating cyber risks.<\/span><\/p>\n

The company faces global competitors like Toshiba and ID Quantique and is partnering with Danish firm Partisia to pair QRNG with multi-party computation, enabling privacy-preserving AI training on sensitive datasets.<\/span><\/p>\n

Squareroot8 currently employs about 10 Singaporean engineers and plans to double headcount within two years, highlighting Singapore\u2019s early and continued public investment in quantum tech (NRF has committed $700 million since 2002).<\/span><\/p>\n

NUS ECE startup, Squareroot8 Technologies <\/span>\u00a0featured on Straits Times recently –<\/span> https:\/\/www.straitstimes.com\/tech\/spore-quantum-start-up-aims-to-make-critical-systems-unhackable<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

NUS spin-off Squareroot8 Technologies is launching a chip-based Quantum Random Number Generator (QRNG) that leverages intrinsic quantum randomness to produce high-entropy keys, aiming to make protected systems almost unhackable. The company began QRNG research in 2018 at NUS ECE with Assoc Prof Charles Lim, received a $3 million NRF fellowship\/grant in 2019, licensed core technology<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":352,"featured_media":22210,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"default","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"set","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"news_category":[],"class_list":["post-22209","nus-news","type-nus-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cde.nus.edu.sg\/ece\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/22209","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cde.nus.edu.sg\/ece\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cde.nus.edu.sg\/ece\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/nus-news"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cde.nus.edu.sg\/ece\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/352"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/cde.nus.edu.sg\/ece\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/22209\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22216,"href":"https:\/\/cde.nus.edu.sg\/ece\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/22209\/revisions\/22216"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cde.nus.edu.sg\/ece\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22210"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cde.nus.edu.sg\/ece\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22209"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news_category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cde.nus.edu.sg\/ece\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news_category?post=22209"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}