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Company

One diamond platform, many instruments.

Spectral Flow designs quantum sensors based on nitrogen-vacancy centres in diamond. Navigation comes first: positions you can trust without GPS, each with its error bound.

Vision

Navigation first, then other instruments.

A nitrogen-vacancy centre is a defect in diamond that behaves like a tiny compass you read with light. It works at room temperature, and the same sensing core can serve very different instruments.

We start with navigation: an instrument that reads the Earth’s magnetic field and returns each position with its error bound. The same diamond can also serve life sciences, semiconductors and industry, and quantum computing. Those applications follow navigation, each at its own pace.

We design the sensor, its electronics and its software, with European research laboratories.

Where we stand

What is done, and what comes next.

Our first mobile prototype is designed; assembly starts once funding is confirmed.

As of October 2026

  1. Done

    Spectral Flow SAS registered

  2. Done

    Navigation simulation online

    Our sensor design flies complete missions in simulation, from the magnetic terrain to the navigation filter. The simulation is still to be calibrated against hardware, and every figure is model-derived.

    About the simulation

  3. Done

    Member of NVIDIA Inception and of the Google for Startups Cloud Program

  4. Done

    Mission demos open to everyone

    Anyone can fly a mission in the browser, with no account.

    Fly a mission

  5. Done

    Qualified as a deeptech company by Bpifrance

    About the qualification

  6. Done

    Seventeenth patent application, filed in France

    Patent applications

  7. Now

    First mobile prototype designed

    The sensor, the electronics that drive and read it, and the mechanics that carry them on a moving vehicle.

    About the prototype

  8. Next

    Assembly and first tests

    First measurements on the assembled prototype, then tests on the move.

Team

A founder from business, working with research laboratories.

Alexandre Papa, founder of Spectral Flow

Alexandre Papa

Founder and President

Alexandre Papa founded Spectral Flow in Villefranche-sur-Mer, on the French Riviera.

He spent twenty-five years in finance and operations: deputy to the chief financial officer of an 11,000-person group, then interim chief financial officer of smaller companies. That work taught him that the hardest problems live at the seams between disciplines.

In November 2025 he read his first papers on diamond quantum sensing. He did not ask what the sensor could do, but where it would be worth the most. The answer was navigation.

His operating rule comes from aviation history: no Concordes. Every instrument must also make commercial sense.

Research laboratories

We work with the best European research laboratories in diamond growth and nanofabrication, photonics and spin physics. Their names are available on request.

Laboratories, write to us

The company on paper

Legal entity
Spectral Flow SAS, société par actions simplifiée
Trade register
RCS Nice 103 022 588
Registered on
2 April 2026
Registered office
Villefranche-sur-Mer, France
President
Alexandre Papa

Full company and hosting details are in our legal notice.

Support and memberships

Recognitions, memberships and selections.

Recognised

  • Bpifrance

    Qualified as a deeptech company by Bpifrance

    Since July 2026

Pre-incubated at

  • Incubateur Provence Côte d'Azur

    Pre-incubated at the Incubateur Provence Côte d'Azur

Member of

Selected for

  • Tech Tour

    Selected to pitch at Tech Tour Quantum & Defence 2026 (Berlin)

    July 2026

Patents

Patent-pending.

Seventeen patent applications filed in 2026: sixteen UK provisional, one French. Their content is not public.

As of October 2026

Patent applications filed in 2026
17

Careers

Internships and engineering roles, from 2027.

We are a small team. In 2027 we will open internships in diamond nanofabrication and quantum sensing, and engineering roles. We also welcome spontaneous applications from researchers and postdocs whose work is closely aligned with ours: diamond growth and nanofabrication, spin physics, photonics and magnetic navigation. Write to us.

Press

Writing about Spectral Flow?

Facts, boilerplate, the mark to download and a press contact, in one place.

Open the press kit