Australian quantum sensing company Deteqt has closed a $5 million AUD seed round, highlighting a manufacturing-focused push to scale its chip-scale quantum magnetic sensing technology as global interest in defence and field-deployable sensing grows.
The round was led by Main Sequence, with participation from ATP Fund, BOKA Capital, Beaten Zone Venture Partners, Uniseed, and the University of Sydney. According to Deteqt, the funding will support development of its next-generation field-ready product, expansion of diamond chip manufacturing, and team growth.
Deteqt chief executive and co-founder Dr Jim Rabeau said the company’s approach is aimed at making magnetic fields more accessible and usable at scale through manufacturing advances in chip integration.
“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,” he said.
He added that magnetic sensing has historically been limited by size and cost constraints, despite its established uses in areas such as medical imaging and mineral exploration.
Investors pointed to both the technology’s dual-use potential and its manufacturability. Main Sequence investment manager Alejandra Romero said the company is addressing a difficult engineering challenge in quantum sensing. “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,” she said.
The company’s lead application is GPS-denied navigation for defence platforms, amid growing demand for alternatives in environments where satellite positioning systems are disrupted or unavailable.
BOKA Capital partner Erik Thoresen said demand for such capabilities is becoming more immediate. “The demand signal for GPS-independent navigation is no longer theoretical; it’s operational and urgent,” he said, adding that the platform’s potential extended beyond defence applications.
Deteqt said the capital will be used to advance its quantum magnetometer toward early commercial deployment while scaling its manufacturing pathway for broader industrial and defence use cases.
