Professor Michael Holynski
Professor of Quantum Sensing
Staff profile for Professor Michael Holynski, Professor of Quantum Sensing at the School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Birmingham.
Quantum sensing: from lab to national infrastructure projects
Delta.g helps reveal what lies beneath the ground before work begins, reducing risk in large-scale projects.
Delta.g, a University of Birmingham spin-out, is building what has been dubbed the “Google Maps for the underground” – a quantum sensing platform designed to reveal hidden subsurface structures without a single spade entering the ground.
The company’s core technology is a portable quantum gravity gradiometer that uses cold atom clouds and lasers to detect minute changes in local gravity fields. In practice, that means being able to detect voids, utilities, tunnels and other buried features with a level of precision that promises to reduce risk in large-scale infrastructure and energy projects.
“We can solve some of the hardest problems out there. Billions of dollars are committed with an inadequate view of the subsurface," says Tony Lowe, Delta.g’s Chief Executive.
Founded in 2023 by academic co-founders Professor Michael Holynski, Jonathan Winch and Andrew Lamb after a decade of research at the UK’s Quantum Technology Hub, Delta.g is now moving from lab to commercial deployment under the leadership of Mr Lowe, a deep-tech operator with previous experience scaling complex hardware and autonomous systems. That has involved the development of a mobile sensor platform that can be operated by non-physicists in the field.
Christened “the Rhino”, the small, mobile unit that has allowed the sensor to be tested in real world environments.
The shift from laboratory-based technology to product has been underpinned by Enterprise and the wider University ecosystem.
Delta.g is based at Birmingham Research Park, close enough to the academic community to collaborate, but independent enough to scale as a commercial company. The company still benefits from the use of University facilities such as the National Buried Infrastructure Facility, a unique, large-scale test site for underground pipes, tunnels, and ground interactions.
As part of the recent funding round, Delta.g was able to secure assignment of the core IP originally licensed from the University – a move Mr Lowe describes as a key differentiator from many deep-tech peers still constrained by legacy licensing arrangements. Meeting spin-out milestones allowed University and company to agree to a clean transfer of rights. “That gave the incoming investors a huge vote of confidence,” says Mr Lowe.
On funding, Delta.g has moved quickly. A £1.5 million pre-seed round in 2023 was followed by an oversubscribed £4.6 million seed round in late 2025, led by Singapore-based Serendipity Capital, alongside Science Creates Ventures and the National Security Strategic Investment Fund, the UK’s defence and security-focused venture arm.
Within days of closing, Delta.g secured an R&D contract with the Ministry of Defence, adding to work with the Department for Transport and other public-sector partners.
Major infrastructure projects, such as HS2, rely on knowing what’s underground.
Corporate partnerships are now central to the company’s validation phase. Delta.g has announced an upcoming partnership with an energy major and is working across major civil engineering groups.
Although headquartered in the Midlands, Delta.g’s ambitions are explicitly global. A significant Series A round, planned for early next year, is intended to fund dedicated offices in North America and Southeast Asia, build out a production-grade, ruggedised sensor, and turn a Midlands quantum spin-out into a trusted supplier to global infrastructure, energy and defence players.