Big Sur Ventures invests in Arq Quantum Technologies' $1.4 million pre-seed funding round to accelerate the development of the quantum internet

Big Sur Ventures has participated in the $1.4 million pre-seed funding round of Arq Quantum Technologies, led by Ground State Ventures, to accelerate the development of key technologies for the future quantum internet.

Founded in 2025 by researchers Samuele Grandi and Emanuele Distante, Arq is developing quantum repeaters based on quantum memories, a critical enabling technology for connecting quantum computers over long distances and building scalable quantum communication infrastructure. The company's technology combines rare-earth-doped crystals with multiplexed architectures, enabling the simultaneous storage and transmission of multiple photons, significantly improving the speed, efficiency and reliability of quantum networks.

Arq's founders have an outstanding scientific track record and have contributed to some of the field's most significant breakthroughs, including the development of the first multiplexed, telecom-compatible quantum repeater and the first transmission of light-matter entanglement over metropolitan optical fibre networks.

The proceeds from the funding round will be used to establish a state-of-the-art laboratory to develop a new generation of quantum memories with enhanced reproducibility and reliability, bringing the technology closer to commercial deployment. The company plans to target sectors including telecommunications, financial services, pharmaceuticals and healthcare.

For Big Sur Ventures, the investment reflects the growing importance of the infrastructure that will enable distributed quantum computing. The firm believes that as quantum networks evolve from research projects into commercial infrastructure, technologies such as those developed by Arq will become a strategic building block for the future of communications.

Ismael Almazan, partner at Big Sur Ventures, said: “Quantum networks are transitioning from a physics experiment to infrastructure — and the window to back the enabling hardware layer is right now. ARQ sits at exactly that inflection point, delivering a quantum link from a lab demonstration into deployable infrastructure with long storage times, high efficiency, and native multi-dimensional multiplexing.”