Finland's Quantum Revolution: Inside the APS Summit

This episode, recorded in collaboration with Katri Raevuori (Business Finland),  at the APS March Meeting, explores why Finland is a global hub for quantum and deep tech.

Guests in this episode:

• Sirpa Salmi (Kvanttinova)
• Harry Smith (SemiQon)
• David Gunnarsson (Bluefors)
• Galina Leväsluoto (IQM)
• Dominic Lennon (QuantrolOx)
• Bilge Can Yildiz (Arctic Instruments)
• Tommi Hakulinen (Vexlum)

We discuss:

• Ecosystem: Why collaboration between research and industry is the key to faster prototyping.
• Scaling Hardware: Overcoming the challenges of cryogenics and instrumentation.
• Talent & Culture: What it’s like for international experts to build a career in Finland.
• Future Tech: The role of automation and lasers in stabilizing quantum systems.

Whether you're an engineer, a researcher, or just curious about deep tech, this is your grounded guide to the market.

Transcript

Intro 0:01

Welcome to Global Edge Talk, where we connect you with people and ideas shaping the future of global business and innovation. It's an industry being built by people, by people like today's guests. We got down with Object Recording at the APS Global Physics Summit 2026. Recorded in collaboration with Business Finland to talk about what it really takes to turn cutting-edge physics into scalable products and why Finland is needing to charge. From hardware and cryogenics to talent, culture, and the future of automation. This one's packed. Let's get into it.

Katri Raevuori 0:40

Hello, hello. We are at the Work in Finland booth at the Career Fair at the APS Summit. And I have Sirpa Salmi here from Kvanttinova. Great pleasure. So if you could introduce yourself a little bit and also tell a little bit about what Kvanttinova is.

Sirpa Salmi 0:57

Yes, nice to meet you. Yeah, I'm Sirpa from Kvanttinova, and my responsibilities are sales, marketing, and skills and talent. That's why I'm here. And what Kvanttinova is doing, uh we are an ecosystem player which are matchmaking different companies to each other, but also talents to companies or research to companies. And why we want to do this is that we want to support the growth in Finland. That sounds great.

Katri Raevuori 1:25

How about how do you see the quantum ecosystem in Finland and what is unique in our ecosystem?

Sirpa Salmi 1:33

The uniqueness, yeah, quantum ecosystem is very dense. The companies are not working in silos, they love to work with each other, like cooperate. And that's what we embrace. The ecosystem is uh the unique ecosystem comes from the combination of research, applied research, and the company's cooperation. So that makes the new unicorns and that's the recipe of success in Finland. And it's rare in the world. For example, in in our ecosystem, you have you can have the access as a company to a um VTT clean room, which is not uh possible in other places of the world. And at the same clean clean room, there can be like researchers from the university, and that makes like new ideas and uh new business.

Katri Raevuori 2:20

Wow, that sounds like truly amazing stuff. How do you find uh the match between the US talents, these great talents that we have here in the quantum field and also other fields, but especially quantum? How do you see that the match with the Finnish business environment and Finnish companies?

Sirpa Salmi 2:37

It's an excellent fit. All the amazing talents I have met here, they uh they match so well to Finnish society, to the needs of companies like quantum computing, but also semiconductor or space side, for example. So it's exactly wh why we are here. That's wonderful.

Katri Raevuori 2:55

Okay, thank you so much, Sir pa. We will come continue talking with the amazing talents at the APS. Thank you.

Sirpa Salmi 3:02

Thank you.

Katri Raevuori 3:08

Hello, we're here with Work in Finland at the Semicon booth. And I'm gonna ask a few questions from Harry Smith. And my name is Katri. I work in the Work in Finland unit. So hello Harry. Very nice to meet you and nice to have you for this interview. If you could tell me a little bit about yourself and then a little bit about what your company does.

Harry Smith 3:28

Yeah, no, super happy to be here. So I'm Harry. I was originally from the UK, recently moved to Finland. I am a quantum engineer at Semiquon. Uh, so what that means is I take care of a lot of the different aspects when we're dealing with quantum mechanics and how we can leverage them for the future. So, particularly Semicuan, we are focused on cryo CMOS applications. So, the idea behind this is that we're going to be taking a lot of the instruments you may see on the server rack next to a dilution refrigerator or other cryogenic fridge and moving them more inside the fridge itself on the same temperature plates as any of the circuits or electronics, which you may want to measure. That could be quantum dots, it could be transport measurements, stuff like this. Um, with the idea of by moving them inside the fridge, we can then limit the amount of RF cables or wiring you need to take down into your base plates. Instead, we can actually do all of that at the low temperature. So we have MUXs, we have switching devices, we're also looking at introducing signal generation, so being able to actually produce RF signals at that cryogenic temperature as well.

Katri Raevuori 4:38

That sounds fascinating and absolutely great. As an international talent, how do you find living in Finland? And uh, how have you settled to the business culture of Finland, especially at the semicon? And you and overall your life, how is it in Finland?

Harry Smith 4:53

Uh yeah, so I have very, very recently moved to Finland, and it's been definitely an interesting shift. Um, so Finland has a lot more respect for that kind of separation between work and life, a balance, so which is really nice to have. I I moved from doing a PhD in an environment where I would be working weekends throughout the entire week and everything. So having that ability to separate out my life and know that when I am not working, I am not working is great. Also, Lunas, going for lunch, is definitely a nice addition. In the UK, there is more of a culture of having these meal deals, as we call them, which are kind of not particularly great sandwiches with a snack and a drink. So going out and having actual proper food, sit down and sitting down and eating that with everybody is definitely a nice shift.

Katri Raevuori 5:41

Sounds great. Now that you have been here at the APS, how have you found these days here? And how do you find the US market overall? And also, are you hiring at the moment from especially from the US?

Harry Smith 5:53

Yeah, so US, this is not my first time at APS. It's always amazing to see all of the different research and the different uh initiatives the US has for different uh technological developments and where they're putting their money. And a lot of the companies, obviously, we have plenty here from Europe and around the world, but also a lot of very interesting companies from the US. In regards to hiring, uh, we are definitely hiring at the moment. So currently we have one roll up for a cryogenics engineer, but I know we are planning on definitely increasing in size quite quickly in the next year or so. So we are gonna have a lot more job postings going up soon.

Katri Raevuori 6:31

That's great. And uh all those job postings you can find at the Work in Finland site as well. I'm sure there's some of your jobs already there. But thank you very much, Harry. It was very nice to meet you, and thank you for the interview. Okay, here we are with Work in Finland at the Blue force booth at APS. And my name is Katri from Work in Finland, and I'm gonna ask a few questions from David Gunnarsson, who works at Blue force. So very nice to meet you, David. Do you want to first tell a little bit about what your company does and um, you know, general information?

David Gunnarsson 7:12

Yes, so thank you for having this interview. So uh Blue force is a company doing cryogenic measurement systems, and we started off as a company providing scientific tools for cryogenics to academy or technical research centers. But since the cryogenics is needed in a lot of technology that now actually commercialize, especially quantum, so we now see ourselves as a company that is part of the providing the quantum infrastructure to many of the quantum modalities that you see around here today.

Katri Raevuori 7:46

That sounds absolutely amazing. I mean, and you have a really nice presence here at the APS and a very nice looking booth. What kind of talent are you looking for to work in your company overall? What kind of positions do you usually have open? And do you have many openings here at the APS?

David Gunnarsson 8:02

I think we have a lot of openings because we are quite a large company. We have more than 700 people worldwide. So, of course, the variation of workforce is quite large. Of course, here in in uh at the APS, we have mainly scientists and physicists. So we actually are at a job fair, so we are uh having one or two positions open in that that regime, but then we also look for other talents, engineers, salespeople, coordinators. It's a quite broad, broad portfolio. We are a manufacturing company, so of course, in that context, we also need people that can do assembly work and manufacturing skills. Uh so it's a quite broad range. So it's hard to say that there's one, but there is steady, steady sort of uh recruitments going on for sure. Yes.

Katri Raevuori 8:47

How about as you are an international talent also working in Finland? How how would you describe the working culture overall in Finland and specifically at Blue Force? How is it if somebody gets interested in your openings? How how do you get settled and how do you how do you find it? And you have like first-hand information because you're from Sweden, right?

David Gunnarsson 9:07

So, of course, I came to Finland through through through academia, so there was maybe a little bit different setting. Blueforce have recruited talent from abroad, and uh we have a good process of getting them on board. I think just two weeks ago I had a new person coming in from Ireland. It it's been going quite well, and I think people like like the atmosphere coming. We we call ourselves Blueforcians, so it's a quite tight-knit culture of doing these systems. But I haven't yeah, haven't felt any big different uh problems. English is very easy to use as uh someone coming from abroad, and Blueforce have English as their language, so it's very easy for people from abroad to actually join the company and be part of the operation from day one.

Katri Raevuori 9:52

Sounds wonderful. I think Blue Forcian sounds like a wonderful option for probably many people. Yes, I want to thank you very much for this interview, and it was very nice to meet you, and um, all the best for the rest of the APS.

David Gunnarsson 10:07

Thank you.

Katri Raevuori 10:13

Hello, we are here at the IQM booth. My name is Katri. I'm from work in Finland, and I have the pleasure of having Galina here from IQM, and uh who's the head of talent acquisition at IQM. Very nice to meet you. Um would you like to introduce yourself a little bit and also tell what IQM is all about? Yeah, sure, of course.

Galina Leväsluoto 10:33

Um, so hi, I'm Galina. Um, leading our talent acquisition efforts for the past four and a half years at IQM. We are um global leader in quantum computing. So um we've grown to nearly 400 employees now, so around the world, founded in Finland in 2019 and now have been expanding internationally. I think we are working with super consumption qubits, so something that maybe it's good to know. And um, we build full-stack quantum computers internationally. Is it good enough introduction?

Katri Raevuori 11:04

That sounds great. And I have been following your growth path, and I must say it's really impressive. So, congratulations for your company. How do you find the US market? Uh how do you how do you find the APS here? And how have you found now that we have been here for a few days? Yeah.

Galina Leväsluoto 11:19

Thank you. That's a good question. So actually, we this is not our first APS March meeting, so we have been participating for a few years. I think this one is quite special though, because this now comes after we sold and delivered our first quantum computer in Oak Rish National Lab. So actually, more people know about us, so we get a lot of interest from the talent and from the market in general. Regarding the US market, so we have five people on the ground right now, so mainly in business development and technical sales, but we are also growing and um yeah, have been enjoying it so far. I think it's a great event.

Katri Raevuori 11:51

And um, how about um are you hiring at the moment any talents to work in Finland? How do you obviously you're a very international company, but how would you see the match between the US talents that we meet here and the Finnish working culture?

Galina Leväsluoto 12:06

Another very good question. So, actually, in APS March meeting, uh the talent is actually also quite diverse and international. So people are coming not only from the US institutions, but also actually everywhere in the world. And for us, we are hiring in many places, actually, as I mentioned. So it's Europe, US, Asia Pacific as well. And we had quite a lot of interest. And I think there are actually quite a lot of good um match of uh candidates. I think uh people are coming from a very relevant background over here. And we do um relocate, well, okay. I cannot tell like if we're gonna relocate people specifically from this event, but we usually uh provide this sort of support. And we have quite a few people, so we have more than uh 50 nationalities in the company, and I think we have been all integrated quite well. Actually, like thinking about it is a little bit surprising, but I think Finland somehow is an easy place to integrate, especially when you come from you know tech background and um coming for work for an international company. We also provide some support, language courses, for example, so I guess it helps as well.

Katri Raevuori 13:07

Yeah, wow. More than 50 nationalities in your company. That's amazing. But yes, um, I want to thank you so much for this interview and I wish all the best for the rest of APS and and for everything. Thank you, Galina.

Galina Leväsluoto 13:18

Thank you, Katri. Thanks a lot.

Katri Raevuori 13:24

Okay, hello from APS. We are here at the Quantrolox booth, a difficult name. My name is Katri, I'm from Work in Finland, and I have Dominic here from this company. Hello, Dominic. Can you introduce yourself and tell a few words about your company?

Dominic Lennon 13:43

Um, do you want me to take um I'm Dominic Lennon, I'm director of products and co-founder here at Quantrolox. My background really is I'm doing automation systems for quantum computers, and that's essentially what our company does. So it's kind of a natural evolution of what we were when I was doing my research um back in the day. The reason we do this is there is a large need for being able to automate the processes of bringing up and tuning quantum computing systems because they are not simple. They don't drive themselves per se. So you need a sort of self-driving automation system to be able to keep them stable, keep them operational, and keep them working. We also work on other things like educational programs to help people understand how to do quantum computing hardware.

Katri Raevuori 14:28

Well, that that sounds amazing. I mean, wonderful work. You are based in Finland, your company's based in Finland, right? How do you find the talents here maybe matching with the Finnish working culture? And how do you find your, you know, how is your your business culture in Finland? Uh do you think it's a good match?

Dominic Lennon 14:45

Yeah, I think there's a there's a really good match there. I mean, I work shoulder to shoulder with, even though I'm listening from the UK, but I work with the Finnish team every day, all the time on video calls. We're a remote working company, so I feel almost like I'm part of the Finnish family there, and I really, really love the culture and the business culture on that side of things. Very frank and very honest and very open. I really enjoy that very much. And it does match how I feel like the business culture here is in the US as well, which I think is a really, really, really good dynamic for anybody who's looking for role in the Finnish ecosystem.

Katri Raevuori 15:18

That sounds great. How about is this your first time in APS? How do you find this summit? Has it been good for for you this time?

Dominic Lennon 15:26

Yeah, we're we're really starting to announce quite a little bit of diverse product lines here. So I myself um think I've been to every APS for like the last six years or something like that. Yeah, several times now as an exhibitor, uh, but also I used to be here for the research. This is a really, really nice uh Denver is a really, really nice location. I really, really love Colorado. The um organizers have done a great job this time round. And we're having a really, really good time here, actually. I think the um uh progress on the products and the launches is really, really, really hitting home, and a lot of people have given us great feedback.

Katri Raevuori 15:59

Wonderful. I wish you all the best for the remaining of APS and overall in the future. For the future. Well, thank you so much for this interview and uh thanks. All right, hello. We are here with Work in Finland at the Arctic Instruments booth. And my name is Katri from Work in Finland, Business Finland, and I have Bilge here from Arctic Instruments. So if you could tell me a little bit about, firstly introduce who you are and tell me a little bit about your company, that would be great.

Bilge Can Yildiz 16:32

Okay, thank you so much. My name is Bilge, I'm the head of business development at Arctic Instruments, and my role is to take care of customer communications, do a little bit of marketing support, and whatever is needed in a company, in a startup company. That sounds wonderful.

Katri Raevuori 16:48

So we are at the APS summit now, and uh there's a lot happening here in this field. Uh, how have you found this event? And are you getting engagement here at your booth?

Bilge Can Yildiz 17:00

This is great. It's really great to be here. There's so many people around. New faces and familiar faces. Usually I take care of customer communications and Arctic Instruments, so I do the all the communications, I know many people. And now with this conference, with this exhibition, I have the chance to match the faces. And it's great, really. It it gives you the opportunity to connect truly. I I'm really loving it here. It's a little bit overwhelming because I don't know, it's maybe a hundred times more crowded than the conferences that I'm used to in Europe. But this is, I think this is the idea, right? Why we are here. It's it's really good. I'm really enjoying it a lot. Good, that sounds wonderful.

Katri Raevuori 17:40

Um uh regarding like opportunities in your company for talents, what kind of openings do you usually have? Is your in uh well, it seems like your company is quite international. You have uh international people working. And how do you find the US market talent-wise?

Bilge Can Yildiz 17:55

It's uh new to us. First of all, we are a new company and we have a rather small headcount at the moment, and we have found our talent all in Finland, even though we have internationally really diverse employees, US in terms of talent. This US market is really new to us, and we are exploring, we are having conversations with students, and they're coming and asking, especially because I'm coming from a researcher background, uh, the students coming and asking me how I transitioned from academia to industry. I'm sharing my story with them, and it's always so interesting, and I'm getting good feedback. I haven't like we haven't hired anyone from the US, but maybe in the future. Yeah, that's great.

Katri Raevuori 18:40

Thank you so much for this interview and all the best. Hello, we are here at APS. My name is Katri, I'm from work in Finland, and we have uh Tommi from Vexum. So we're gonna ask a few questions from his company, Vexlum.

Tommi Hakulinen 19:01

Hi Katri, thanks. So I'm indeed working with uh Vexlum. We are based in Tampere, in Finland, and we are a semiconductor uh laser company. We do uh high power single frequency lasers for quantum applications, mostly for atom cooling and ion trapping applications. Company Core Know-how is indeed in the semiconductor materials, and we are a spin-off from Tampere University.

Katri Raevuori 19:25

Well, that sounds amazing! And we can see all these devices here that you you have. How do you now that we have been here in APS for a few days, how do you find this um US market and how has APS been for you?

Tommi Hakulinen 19:38

Yeah, APS has been great. So it's uh it's been a busy show. Although it's uh of course a vast uh span of physic applications, so not spot on only what we do, but of course there are a lot of uh AMO physicists here as well. And in general, USA is our uh most important market, and we have also here a local local presence, so we have Vexto US um subsidiary here in uh Colorado.

Katri Raevuori 20:03

Wow, yes, I didn't know that that you're already here in the market. That's great. How about your working culture? How are you open to hiring international talents? And are you open to maybe hire some US talents in the future?

Tommi Hakulinen 20:17

Yeah, absolutely. Well, first covering the US, so it's still uh like uh ramping up the um operations here. So at the moment it's uh kind of business development that we are doing here, but later on, probably we want to have also uh local sales and service operations here. Then going back to Finland, well, we are we like to say that we are born international, so uh well we export everything from our revenue. And also, well, we are international in other aspects. So one of our co-founders, uh Professor Mirce Guina, is for example a double citizens of Finland and Romania. So in that sense, uh international company from to start with.

Katri Raevuori 20:55

Yes, so you're you're already experienced in the the international working culture, so that's not a uh problem to you. Well, this sounds really great. And thank you so much for this interview, Tommi. And all the best for the rest of the APS and for your business, of course. Thank you.