Dirac Labs, a quantum-enabled navigation company, raised $1.8 million in pre-seed funding for sensors that can pinpoint your location when GPS doesn’t work.
The Madison, Wisconsin-based company will prototype its quantum sensors and conduct field trials to further refine its technology to provide universal positioning where global positioning system (GPS) satellite navigation is unavailable.
TitletownTech, a venture capital firm formed out of a partnership between Microsoft and the NFL’s Green Bay Packers, participated in this round along with Automotive Ventures, Riceberg Ventures, quantumEDGE Ventures, Jude Gomila and Balaji Srinivasan.
The Dirac Labs diamond-based sensing platform uses specially engineered materials to measure Earth’s magnetic field with extreme precision, enabling positioning and navigation without relying on GPS. The hardware is combined with AI models that perform real-time signal processing and sensor fusion, turning a faint signal into a precise position and keeping the device resilient as external conditions change.
“There is a clear and timely need for navigation and positioning capabilities underwater, underground and more,” said Jill Enos, managing partner of TitletownTech, in a statement. “Dirac Labs is combining quantum sensing, AI and semiconductor-compatible manufacturing to build a scalable navigation solution for the places where GPS cannot be relied upon. The leadership team has the technical depth and commercial ambition to define this emerging category, and we are proud to lead their pre-seed investment.”
Dirac Labs has also received non-dilutive public funding from the Indo-U.S. Science and Technology Forum (IUSSTF), and took part in gener8tor‘s Great Lakes Innovation Accelerator, part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Ocean Enterprise Accelerators program. Additional funding came from the Wisconsin Entrepreneurship Hub, via a collaborative project with the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
“GPS is global, but not universal,” said Sanket Deshpande, CEO of Dirac Labs, in a statement. “The signals have never reached underground or underwater, where a growing share of exploration, mining and defense work happens. Earth’s magnetic field is already in those places, and it only gets stronger the closer you get to the rock. Dirac Labs is building the quantum sensors that turn that field into positioning for the platforms that need it most.”
Quantum sensing offers a resilient, alternative method of positioning by measuring features of Earth’s magnetic field, which remains present in environments where GPS signals cannot reach.
The Dirac Labs sensors are designed to leverage existing semiconductor foundry infrastructure, making them scalable and low-cost compared to competing methods. By producing small and robust sensors, the company can solve the scalability challenge that has proven the main barrier to broad deployment of quantum sensing. The system is also intended to use the same port as a GPS receiver without having to re-engineer vessels and platforms.
“We are building a navigation layer for everywhere that GPS cannot reach and closing the gap toward true universal positioning,” said Aishwarya Das, COO of Dirac Labs, in a statement. “Early traction with major defense and industrial partners has validated the near-term demand for quantum sensing, and once these platforms can navigate the subsurface with confidence, missions that are impossible today become routine.”
Deshpande and Das spun Dirac Labs out of the University of Wisconsin-Madison following Deshpande’s Ph.D. defense, which was dedicated to making quantum technologies robust enough to function in the field. Das has a background in physics and machine learning, the two disciplines at the core of Dirac Labs quantum universal positioning system.
“Quantum magnetometry has worked in the lab for years. The barrier has always been fielding a sensor that holds accuracy in real conditions at a cost you can actually scale. Dirac Labs built manufacturability into the physics from the start, which is why I see their approach as genuinely deployable navigation infrastructure,” said Michael Nayak, a scientific advisor to Dirac Labs, in a statement.
Nayak is also CTO of the XPRIZE Foundation, where he oversees the Quantum Applications XPRIZE, and founded a next-gen quantum program while a DARPA Program Manager.
“The Dirac Labs roadmap to scalable quantum navigation sensors lines up with a clear national need and with real regional strengths,” said Jennifer Choy, associate professor at University of Wisconsin-Madison and scientific advisor to Dirac Labs, in a statement. “The Midwest has built a quantum ecosystem that spans national labs, universities, and a growing set of companies. It is home to domestic diamond materials growth and has potential end markets like agriculture where autonomous equipment must operate accurately in places a GPS signal doesn’t reliably reach.”
“Quantum sensors are being developed for positioning and navigation, but today the cost is prohibitive for anything but large defense platforms—and on a large defense budget,” said Mikhail Kats, Deshpande’s former PhD advisor and scientific advisor to Dirac Labs, in a statement. “Dirac Labs has the technical expertise and vision to make quantum sensors smaller and cheaper, which would unlock secure and reliable positioning in a world of autonomous cars and drones.”
Spun out of the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2025, Dirac Labs is developing solid-state quantum sensors that combine with AI models to create robust, scalable and low-cost positioning for use on defense and commercial platforms. The company has five people, and it started after cofounder Deshpande defended his PhD thesis.
Das said in a message to GamesBeat that Desphande has spent the last eight years in quantum sensing, and his PhD was dedicated to making quantum technologies robust enough to function in the field.
“That is where the inspiration came from. Quantum computing gets most of the attention and its payoff is still years out. Quantum sensors deliver the promise of quantum physics today. We can measure Earth’s magnetic field precisely enough to navigate a vehicle with hardware that already works, and that felt worth building a company around,” Das said.
I asked if there was a way to prevent the tech from falling into the wrong hands for defense applications.
Das replied, “Control comes from who you build with. We are a US company and follow US export control regulations. It also matters that the sensor is passive. It emits nothing and targets no one. It reads the existing magnetic field and tells your vehicle where it is when GPS is jammed or absent. The greater risk today is allied platforms lacking this capability while adversaries invest heavily in the same physics.”
He said that first market being explore is defense applications for undersea navigation.
“GPS has never worked underwater. Autonomous underwater vehicles today either surface for a position fix or drift on inertial guidance, and both limit the mission. We give them continuous positioning at depth,” Das said.
Das said the sensor is silicon foundry compatible, so the full magnetometer can be manufactured in a chip form factor on existing semiconductor infrastructure.
“That is what makes it scalable and low-cost compared to other quantum approaches,” Das said. “The system is designed to plug into the device ports that airplanes, submarines and other vehicles already have, so adopting it does not require re-engineering the platform. We go to market as the navigation unit inside other companies’ platforms, working with integrators and vehicle makers.”