Singapore's pQCee Raises $3.9M Seed to Scale Quantum-Safe Security

Singapore-based quantum-safe cybersecurity firm pQCee Pte Ltd has raised US$3.9 million in a seed round co-led by SGInnovate and Lotus One Investment, with participation from In Group Holdings, Wavemaker Partners, SUTD Ventures Holdings and Apsara Investments.

The round is the company's second institutional raise. It follows a US$2.8 million round in 2022, co-led by Wavemaker Ventures and SEEDS — the arm of SG Growth Capital, the investment platform of EDB and Enterprise Singapore — with backing from SGInnovate, Mirana Capital, Paragon Capital Management and Apsara Investments.

That earlier capital funded development of pQCee's flagship products: SafeQuard, an end-to-end encryption platform designed to neutralise "harvest-now-decrypt-later" attacks, and QKDLite, key-management middleware built to PKCS#11, ETSI QKD 014 and FIPS 203 standards. Critical national infrastructure providers, government agencies and financial institutions already use both products, according to the company.

"This funding enables us to accelerate our mission of making quantum-safe security easy to deploy and hard to break," said Dr Teik Guan Tan, CEO of pQCee. "As global regulations tighten and the threat landscape evolves, organisations need practical, interoperable solutions they can adopt today. We are grateful for the trust of our investors and partners as we scale our team and expand globally."

The portfolio extends beyond encryption. pQCee also markets inoQulate, a post-quantum PKI certificate product, and QuICScript, a tool that lets users run a 20-qubit quantum simulator directly in a browser. The company rounds out its offering with ownership assurance for digital assets and quantum-safe Web3 protections, aiming to give enterprises a single interoperable architecture for migrating to quantum-resilient systems.

pQCee has built a partner ecosystem to push adoption. Integrations with Thales and Feitian connect its software to hardware security modules and secure devices. Netrust and SendQuick extend quantum-safe protection into digital identity, messaging and enterprise workflows. PQShield ensures alignment with the latest post-quantum cryptographic standards, while partnerships with Microsoft and TechCreate support deployment of crypto-agile security across enterprise IT environments and hardware-based trust systems.

The new money has a clear geographic mandate: expand the Singapore team, deepen presence across Asia, and accelerate entry into the United States, Europe and the Middle East.

Investors frame the bet around timing. "As Q-day rapidly approaches due to advances not just in quantum but also in AI and materials, companies and governments are becoming more aware of the threat this poses to existing systems," said Hsien-Hui Tong, Executive Director – Investments at SGInnovate. "We see pQCee playing a role in providing a solution to this problem, and are delighted to continue supporting Dr Tan and his team as they scale their solution to the global stage. Dr Tan is of course no stranger to us. We were investors in his first cybersecurity startup, and investing in his second venture was an obvious thing to do for us."

Lotus One Investment Chairman Nirmal Singh cast the deal in infrastructure terms. "The best infrastructure companies solve problems before the market fully recognizes them. Quantum-safe security is one of those rare opportunities. By the time quantum risk becomes everyone's priority, the category leaders will already be built. We look forward to supporting their expansion into new markets."

Paul Santos, Co-founder and Managing Partner of Wavemaker Partners, pointed to regulatory deadlines as the demand driver. "Today's encryption methods will no longer be secure in a post-quantum era, making investment in quantum-safe solutions a necessity, not an option," Santos said. "pQCee's holistic suite of solutions simplifies post-quantum cryptography (PQC) migration for enterprises, reducing complexity in integration, procurement, and cost. As regulations globally mandate critical systems to complete PQC migration by as early as 2030, we believe pQCee, backed by its founding team's expertise, is well-positioned to capture early demand."

With roughly US$6.7 million in institutional funding to date, pQCee now has to convert a standards-heavy product suite and partner network into share across three new regions before the 2030 compliance deadlines tighten the market for everyone.