Sydney quantum sensing startup Deteqt has raised a A$5 million seed round led by Main Sequence, the venture fund founded by CSIRO, to commercialise a magnetometer built from a diamond crystal and a custom semiconductor chip. The round was announced in April 2026.
Magnetometers measure magnetic fields, and quantum versions can detect extremely faint ones. Most of them are bulky laboratory instruments. Deteqt’s pitch is a sensor shrunk to chip scale, small enough to sit on a drone and designed to be made with standard semiconductor processes.
How the sensor works
The device pairs a diamond crystal with a custom chip to read magnetic fields, according to The Quantum Insider. “Magnetic fields permeate everything around us,” chief executive and co-founder Dr Jim Rabeau said when the round was announced, pointing to objects, geological formations and living bodies.
That sensitivity is what links the company to a widely shared story. When a US Air Force pilot went down over Iran, an unconfirmed New York Post report said the rescue team located him by detecting his heartbeat from a distance through its magnetic signature. It is not clear what technology was actually used, but Forbes Australia used the episode to frame its coverage of the raise.
Navigation without GPS
The first commercial target is navigation for defence platforms in places where GPS is jammed, now routine on modern battlefields. Satellite signals can be blocked or spoofed; the Earth’s magnetic field cannot. A sensor that reads that field precisely can help a drone or vehicle work out where it is without outside signals. The company also lists autonomous vehicles, robots and other field environments as applications.
Founders and investors
Deteqt was spun out of the University of Sydney’s Nano Institute in 2024 by professors Jim Rabeau and Omid Kavehei. Main Sequence led the seed round, with ATP Fund, BOKA Capital, Beaten Zone Venture Partners, Uniseed and the University of Sydney also investing.
The company said the money would go towards a next generation, field-ready product for its first commercial deployments, scaling up diamond chip manufacturing and growing the team. BOKA Capital partner Erik Thoresen described it as “genuine dual-use technology with a credible manufacturing path”, according to The Quantum Insider.
Jack’s take
GPS was the last generation’s breakthrough. Reading the planet’s magnetic field could be the next one, and one of the smallest versions of that technology is being built in Sydney. Defence will pay first, but the civilian uses are where the volume would be.