In administration. Entered administration on 27 August 2025, with Alistair McAlinden and Geoff Jacobs of Interpath as joint administrators (Companies House SC243330). In November 2025 the administrators sold its intellectual property and certain other assets to Novacene Photonics Limited.
Company · Glasgow
M Squared Lasers made precision lasers in Glasgow, and its SolsTiS tunable platform became a common tool in cold-atom quantum labs. It led DISCOVERY, a £7.2m Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund consortium (2020 to 2024) with Oxford Ionics, ORCA, NPL and others, working on the lasers, vacuum hardware and electronics needed to scale atom and ion quantum computers. In November 2022 it showed Maxwell, a neutral-atom prototype built with the University of Strathclyde. The company went into administration in August 2025 with 28 jobs lost, and by November 2025 Interpath had sold its intellectual property and other assets to Novacene Photonics.
M Squared Lasers is a Glasgow company working on quantum sensing, control and neutral atom, founded in 2006. It leads 1 UK project (DISCOVERY) and is a partner in 4 more.
Sources: M Squared Lasers enters administration (Quantum Zeitgeist) · DISCOVERY: Developing UK Industrial Supply for Commercial Quantum Computing (Gateway to Research) · M Squared reveals quantum computing breakthrough (Invest Glasgow) · IP and assets of photonics and quantum tech firm acquired from administration (Business Sale Report)
DISCOVERY
An M Squared-led consortium that worked on the photonics needed to scale neutral-atom, trapped-ion and optical quantum computers.
Role: Lead
Themes: Computing
QCi3
The national research hub for quantum computing, led by the University of Oxford. It works on scalable and networked quantum computers.
Role: Partner
Funding: £21.9m
Themes: Computing, Networks, Software and algorithms
QuantIC
The phase 2 national hub for quantum imaging, led by the University of Glasgow. Its grant ran from December 2019 to May 2025.
Role: Partner
Funding: £25m
Themes: Imaging, Sensing
QCS
The phase 2 national hub for quantum computing and simulation, led by the University of Oxford. It ran from 2019 to 2024.
Role: Partner
Funding: £27.3m
Themes: Computing, Software and algorithms
The phase 2 national hub for quantum sensors and clocks, led by the University of Birmingham. It ran from 2019 to 2024.
Role: Partner
Funding: £28.6m
Themes: Sensing, Timing and navigation
Recent articles from Quantum Zeitgeist that mention M Squared Lasers.
The top neutral atom quantum computing companies in 2026: QuEra, Pasqal, Atom Computing, Infleqtion, planqc, plus the M Squared laser supply chain. Rydberg-blockade gate-model and analog-mode QPUs scaling to 1000+ qubits.
Image © Quantum Zeitgeist
The uk quantum adjacent companies build the technology that makes quantum computing possible without building the quantum computers themselves, from the cryogenics that cool the chips to the lasers, photonic components, sensors and security hardware around them. Britain is unusually strong in this e
Image © Quantum Zeitgeist
UK quantum computing companies: Quantinuum’s Nasdaq listing, OQC’s 260 million pound round, Oxford Ionics under IonQ, Riverlane, Quantum Motion and the rest of the British stack.
Image © Quantum Zeitgeist
Graeme Malcom OBE and Gareth Maker of M Squared Lasers unveiled the SolsTiS ultra‑narrow linewidth Ti:Sapphire laser in 2006.
Image © Quantum Zeitgeist
Research, commercial and investment relationships, by year. Partners with a profile here are linked.
Novacene Photonics Strategic 2026
Chosen by shared specialisms, then location and type.
Company · Southampton · 5 shared specialisms
Company · Glasgow · 3 shared specialisms
Start-up · Glasgow · 3 shared specialisms
Company · Nottingham · 3 shared specialisms
Company data from Entangled Future. News from Quantum Zeitgeist. Last checked 2 October 2026.
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