Sparrow Quantum secures €21.5 million Series A to industrialise photonic quantum chips

Copenhagen-based Sparrow Quantum, a deep tech spinout from the Niels Bohr Institute, has raised €21.5 million in a Series A round to scale production of its photonic quantum chips. The round was led by PensionDanmark and included the Export and Investment Fund of Denmark known as EIFO, Novo Holdings, existing investors 2xN and LIFTT, and the European Innovation Council. The company says the capital will accelerate manufacturing, broaden R&D into entangled photon sources and expand technical teams.

Who invested and why it matters

The EIC’s visible role is more than a cheque. Sparrow Quantum says it met LIFTT at an Investor Day organised under the EIC Investor Readiness and Outreach Programme. That interaction is presented as an example of how tailored mentoring, pitch refinement and curated introductions from EIC Business Acceleration Services can convert research-stage projects into investable companies.

What Sparrow makes and the technical claim

Sparrow emphasises two practical advantages. First, the company says its photonic chips can operate at room temperature. Second, it claims the chips can integrate with existing electronic infrastructures. Both attributes, if realised at scale, would ease deployment compared with platforms that need cryogenic cooling or specialised packaging. These advantages helped attract investor interest but should be treated cautiously because integrating photonic quantum components into large systems requires validated interfaces, packaging, quality control processes and supply chain readiness.

Planned uses of the new capital

The Series A builds on an earlier €4.1 million seed round raised in 2023. Sparrow positions this funding as the next step to broaden ambitions in production and product development including entangled photon sources which are key to more advanced quantum protocols.

Context in the European quantum ecosystem

European funders and corporate backers explicitly cite technological sovereignty and national competitiveness as motivations. That narrative resonates with policymakers and some investors. Yet the European quantum landscape also includes competing hardware modalities such as superconducting, trapped ion and neutral atom approaches. Each has different engineering and scaling pathways. Photonic platforms have distinct advantages in room temperature operation and photonic network compatibility but need robust manufacturing ecosystems to reach scale.

Commercialisation risks and practical challenges

Raising capital is only one milestone. Moving from a laboratory prototype to reliable, high yield production requires foundry partners, test and packaging infrastructure and standards for interoperability. Deterministic single photon sources are delicate quantum devices and yields can be low without mature processes. Integration into full-stack quantum computers also demands alignment with system integrators, control electronics and software. Sparrow’s existing partnerships with European system integrators are a positive sign but do not remove the technical work ahead.

Other practical questions include supply chain continuity for photonic components, scaling quality control, and the timescale for customers to adopt photonic hardware over incumbent platforms. Enterprise and research customers will require validated performance data and roadmaps to system integration.

Voices from the round

Professor Peter Lodahl, Sparrow’s founder and Chief Quantum Officer, said the funding will intensify efforts to move quantum technology from lab to market and enable scaling in three critical areas. CEO Kurt Stokbro framed the round as evidence of Denmark and Europe’s capacity to lead in quantum. PensionDanmark stressed potential returns for its members and economic benefits for Denmark. EIFO described the investment as strengthening Denmark’s position in the emerging quantum sector.

Those endorsements reflect investor confidence but they do not substitute for independent benchmarks of device performance, manufacturing yield rates or the timeline to commercial contracts.

Implications and outlook

The €21.5 million round is significant for a European photonics hardware company and it underlines growing investor interest in quantum components rather than only software or algorithms. The EIC’s direct and indirect role in matchmaking and co-investment illustrates how European innovation instruments can influence capital flows to deep tech startups. The outcome will depend on Sparrow’s ability to industrialise production, validate devices in customer systems and expand supply chain partnerships.

For the wider ecosystem, the deal is an encouraging indicator that research excellence can attract institutional capital. For Sparrow and the field it marks a transition point. Observers should watch for updates on manufacturing partnerships, quarterly milestones on yields and product deployments, and any public benchmark data comparing Sparrow Core performance with alternative photon source technologies.

The EIC Business Acceleration Services will continue to promote such connections through investor days, mentor coaching and curated introductions. Those services have produced notable matchmaking metrics for EIC awardees but converting introductions into industrial scale supply chains remains a difficult step that will require coordinated efforts from startups, foundries and buyers.