SINGAPORE – With a $3 million funding from the National Research Foundation (NRF) and after six years of tinkering in the depths of a laboratory, a home-grown start-up is ready to launch services that can protect critical information systems in a way that makes them almost unhackable.

Squareroot8 Technologies, a spin-off from the National University of Singapore, is in talks to test its quantum cryptography technology with undisclosed firms in the healthcare, defence and finance sectors here.

Its newly launched product, dubbed the Quantum Random Number Generator (QRNG), uses algorithms that take advantage of the inherent randomness of quantum mechanics to encrypt data.

The result: a string of numbers that is so random that it is impossible for hackers to guess the sequence to decrypt the protected data.

“We use random numbers in our everyday life. They are used to encrypt video calls or communications on our mobile phones,” said Squareroot8 Technologies co-founder and chief technology officer Goh Koon Tong.

“The higher the randomness, the more secure the encryption is,” he said.

Unlike QRNG, current encryption methods often rely on the difficulty of mathematical problems to keep data safe, said Dr Goh.

But these mathematical problems, or algorithms, are predictable. As such, current encryption methods are vulnerable to quantum computers.

Quantum computing holds the promise of carrying out calculations that would take today’s systems millions of years to do so. They could lead to the faster discovery of new drugs or green energy materials, and better artificial intelligence (AI) models to detect software bugs, cancer cells, hate speech or fraud.

By 2040, quantum computing is expected to create US$450 billion (S$581.5 billion) to US$850 billion of economic value, according to a 2024 report by Boston Consulting Group. Economic value is the value of an asset calculated according to its ability to produce income in the future.