Rob Young: How Quantum Base became the first Lancaster University spinout listed on the London Stock Exchange

In this episode, we meet Professor Rob Young, quantum physicist and CSO and co‑founder of Quantum Base, a university spinout on a mission to tackle counterfeiting at a global scale. 

Rob’s journey starts with a childhood dream of being an inventor in a shed, leading to a degree in physics at Oxford, a PhD  at Cambridge, and then a Royal Society fellowship at Lancaster University, which gave him the freedom to pursue practical quantum technologies and develop Quantum Base. 

In our conversation, Rob explains how Quantum Base moved from lab demos to more than 1 billion of their QIDs being used globally,  the long and hard work of aligning technical performance with user behaviour and commercial reality, why Quantum Base chose to raise funding with angels investors and then an IPO over traditional VC funding, and what it means to be the first Lancaster University spin‑out listed on the London Stock Exchange. 

This is a true spinout success story and is filled with fantastic insights about the company-building process as well as the personal journey of a founder.