Quantum security and the fight against counterfeiting with Rob Young, Co-Founder & CSO of Quantum Base

This week on Tech Can’t Save Us, host Paul David is joined by Professor Rob Young, Co-Founder & Chief Science Officer of Quantum Base, a pioneering deep-tech company using quantum physics to authenticate products and stop counterfeiting at the atomic level.

Rob explains how Quantum Base’s flagship technology, Q-ID, a tiny, printed tag containing “atomic-level uniqueness,” delivers provably secure authentication that’s impossible to clone and can be verified by anyone using a standard smartphone. With over half a billion Q-ID tags already produced, the company is tackling a global counterfeiting problem worth $2.8 trillion, including counterfeit medicines that cause more than 1 million deaths annually.

The conversation explores Quantum Base’s journey from university research to becoming a publicly listed company on London’s AIM market, raising £4.8M to scale its technology across industries, from luxury goods and government documents to pharmaceuticals and critical supply chains. Rob also reflects on his 20-year academic career across Cambridge, Tyndall, and Lancaster, how a breakthrough in his PhD work inspired the origins of Q-ID, and why he believes quantum security must be accessible, affordable, and deployable at global scale.

Find more about Quantum Base here: https://quantumbase.com
Follow Rob Young here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/qopto/