Groningen-based BioTech startup QT Sense has raised €4 million to accelerate the development of Quantum Nuova, its quantum sensing platform designed to track cellular stress inside individual living cells in real time. The funding will support the transition of the technology from prototype to a deployable research platform for drug discovery and disease research.
The round combines a €3 million Seed investment led by Cottonwood Technology Fund, follow-on capital from existing investor QDNL Participations, and participation from an angel investor. In parallel, QT Sense secured €600k through the ONCO-Q grant and a further €400k from the Quantum Forward Challenge.
Building on earlier funding momentum
The latest financing follows QT Sense’s €6 million raise in 2025, highlighting continued investor confidence in the company’s approach to applying quantum technology within life sciences. Together, the funding rounds position QT Sense among a growing group of European DeepTech companies translating advanced physics into practical biomedical tools.
A quantum platform for real-time cellular insight
Founded in 2024, QT Sense emerged from more than a decade of research collaboration at the University Medical Center Groningen. The team’s work combines diamond magnetometry, confocal microscopy and quantum sensing to observe biochemical processes in living cells that have historically been impossible to measure directly.
Quantum Nuova, the company’s core platform, is designed to address diseases driven by oxidative stress and metabolic imbalance, including cancer, sepsis, arthritis, immune disorders and male infertility.
Unlike traditional laboratory methods that rely on frozen tissue samples or dead cells, Quantum Nuova measures real-time biochemical activity in live cells and tissues. Using ultra-sensitive fluorescent nanodiamond quantum sensors, the platform detects oxidative stress, free radical kinetics and metabolic shifts at single-cell resolution.
This live, functional view allows researchers to observe how cells respond to drugs, adapt to stress and diverge into distinct subpopulations, offering insight into disease mechanisms that were previously hidden.
Early validation in drug research and oncology
QT Sense says the technology has already been used to demonstrate mechanisms of action for FDA-approved drug compounds. With the newly secured ONCO-Q grant, the platform will now be applied to colorectal cancer research.
Through this work, Quantum Nuova is expected to generate functional maps of oxidative stress and metabolic vulnerabilities in tumour models, supporting the development of new diagnostic approaches and targeted therapies.
Leadership and long-term vision
QT Sense is led by CEO Dr Deepak Veeregowda, who emphasises that quantum sensing represents a fundamental shift rather than an incremental improvement in biomedical research tools. The company’s strategy focuses on delivering a system that operates reliably in real laboratory environments, with scalability and integration built in from the outset.
According to Veeregowda, the decision to partner with Cottonwood Technology Fund was driven by the investor’s track record in backing hardware-led DeepTech companies and supporting long-term platform development.
Positioned within Europe’s quantum and DeepTech ecosystem
QT Sense’s Seed round sits within a broader wave of European investment across quantum computing, sensing and adjacent life science technologies. While some quantum startups are raising tens of millions to scale semiconductor or computing platforms, continued early-stage funding for sensing and metrology highlights sustained interest in practical, application-driven quantum technologies.
For QT Sense, the €4 million round provides the resources needed to strengthen hardware robustness, improve throughput and develop integrated analytics. The company plans to place early-access systems with strategic partners, enabling mechanism-of-action studies, functional heterogeneity profiling and label-free analysis across multiple samples.
As quantum technology moves from academic research into real-world biomedical applications, QT Sense is positioning Quantum Nuova as a foundational platform for how disease biology is studied and understood in the lab.
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