Introducing kiutra’s Co-founder Alexander Regnat
Wolfgang Neubert, our General Partner, recently chatted to Alexander Regnat, CEO and Co-Founder at kiutra, to learn more about the Munich-based company’s mission to provide easy-to-use, turn-key cryostats for researchers and quantum engineers.
Let’s start with an introduction to kiutra
We’re a deep-tech hardware manufacturer developing, building and operating special machines called cryostats to provide the extreme conditions needed to engineer, characterise and operate quantum devices. When I say extreme conditions, I’m talking about ultra-low temperatures, so about -273°C, which is close to absolute zero. We not only provide these very low temperatures for all kinds of quantum technologies but also supply ultra-high vacuum conditions, suitable radio frequency and DC wiring, integration of low-temperature, low-noise electronics, vibration isolation, and optical access.
Therefore, we’re not just about cooling; we see ourselves more as a hardware partner and service provider of an emerging quantum technology industry.
We put a special focus on the ease of use, speed, scalability and sustainability of our products, which is not common in cryogenics but very important for the commercial and industrial applications of quantum hardware.
kiutra is a university spinoff; tell me how it all began
Our founding team has a common background: we’re all low-temperature physicists. We met during our academic education and scientific work at the Department of Physics at the Technical University of Munich. As part of our research, we worked a lot with low-temperature equipment, including traditional gas-based devices and magnetic refrigerators.
When we started working with magnetic coolers, we were immediately impressed by the simplicity and the speed these machines provided. Yes, there were still some technical limitations to consider, such as magnetic coolers could only give limited cooling for a couple of hours. Still, given the growing interest in cooling technology beyond academic and material research, we were convinced that magnetic cooling had commercial potential in this new market.
We developed initial prototypes for permanent magnetic refrigeration, which was financially supported by the state of Bavaria and the Federal Republic of Germany via various grants. In 2018, we founded kiutra to serve a customer of these early prototypes and further develop our technology and products. Then, in 2019, we started the transition to becoming independent from the academic research environment at the university, meeting APEX Ventures during our first venture round.
How has your company evolved and how is your technology unique?
kiutra is the only company worldwide to supply magnetic refrigerators for permanent or continuous cooling at very low temperatures. And we combine this unique technical feature with other innovative and also proprietary ingredients, for instance, rapid sample exchange mechanisms, or novel temperature control algorithms. This way, our solutions even outperform classical cooling devices in numerous applications, ranging from the prototyping, characterisation and quality control of quantum devices to the long-term operation.
Quantum mechanical effects are very fragile with respect to external disturbances, influences, and especially to thermal excitation, so cooling is a crucial requirement. This means that superconducting quantum computers require such ultra-low temperatures. But also other technologies, such as trapped ion or photonic quantum computing, will at some point require very low cryogenic temperatures.
Can you share insight into how kiutra has contributed to the R&D of cryogenics?
We’re very proud that kiutra is constantly pushing the boundaries of cryogenics and low-temperature technology. For instance, our flagship product, the L-Type Rapid, was designed specifically to help scientists and engineers in the fast and easy characterisation of quantum hardware. It establishes a completely new instrument category and is the fastest tool for temperatures well below 1 K.
We’re also working on very innovative cryogenic solutions in order to provide these ultra-low temperatures in a scalable way but with a very small footprint to allow for future integration of quantum hardware in typical IT environments. So, we’re really constantly shifting what can be done using cryogenic cooling based on our completely different approach using magnetic refrigeration.
We have several great partnerships with players in the field, ranging from large corporates to startups and a lot of academic partners, which we very much appreciate as we get a lot of input and feedback from them.
How and why did you decide to work with APEX Ventures?
In addition to public funding, which we have used a lot previously, venture capital has been the most important financing instrument for kiutra for the further development of our core technology and products, as well as a way to grow and build the company. APEX Ventures has been supporting kiutra since our seed round, which we closed in 2019.
At the end of 2021, we raised our Series A round, in which APEX Ventures again contributed a significant part to the total financing volume. We chose APEX Ventures as an investor mainly because it has a lot of practical experience in building up early-stage tech companies, and we’ve certainly really benefited in various areas.
We also very much appreciate the pleasant and very friendly cooperation of working with you, Wolfgang, as well as Andreas Riegler as our investment managers. You have been accompanying and supporting us and our team with a lot of advice and also impulses for more than three years now. It’s input, feedback and support that we very much appreciate. Looking back, I think it was certainly a good decision!
How have you used some of the funding so far?
We have used the funding to build a fantastic, diverse team that helps to turn our vision into reality by developing our technology and products further and establishing them in this emerging quantum market.
We have just recently made ourselves a new home in a brand-new head office in Munich. It offers more space and a very modern office experience, but also has a state-of-the-art lab and production infrastructure.
We’re now at 40 team members, which is not super large but is double the size from just last year, and we’re also currently hiring even more team members.
Obviously, this all comes at a price, and building hardware is costly, so funding is crucial.
What is it like working at kiutra?
It’s a very familiar, friendly, open environment, and we’re all really happy about that. People like to work with each other, and there’s a lot of collaborative work across the engineering team, the production team, as well as the management team.
When we have people visit kiutra, that’s something that stands out, and it has become even more obvious now in our new headquarters, which has a lot of glass walls and windows. Even though there are individual offices, it is very much an open space that also reflects the open mindset of everybody who is working here.
What’s next for kiutra, and what are your plans for the next 12 months?
The last few years have been a fantastic ride, and after a very successful year in 2022, we want to build on this success along with our now larger sales team. At the same time, we want to further optimise and accelerate our production processes to meet the growing demand. This will now be crucial since we have moved to our new building and set up the new production infrastructure here.
We also want to further establish our products in the market and launch some rather exciting new features and products. So, I’d say ‘stay tuned’ and be sure to follow us on our social media channels, so you don’t miss out on what’s coming up! I think there will be some of our customers who will really like what’s going on here this year.
I’m very impressed and positive about the fast development of the European and global quantum ecosystem. If you want to make quantum tech a success story, I think we’re on a very good road so far, even though admittedly there are many challenges ahead.
What are kiutra’s ambitions in the long term?
Today’s cryogenics are still deeply rooted in academia. Our vision is to provide industrial-grade solutions that become the cooling backbone for disruptive applications of quantum technologies. Our products and services will be used for the fabrication of in-line and end-of-line testing of quantum chips, as well as the operation of quantum computing and communication infrastructure. They will be found in labs, fabs, and HPC clusters all over the world.
