## Does Canada Have a Post-Quantum Security Company Worth Watching?

Fredericton-based Lastwall has closed a **$16 million investment round** to deploy post-quantum cryptography defenses across Canadian critical infrastructure — before the cryptographically relevant quantum computer that necessitates them actually exists. The round was led by the Business Development Bank of Canada through its StrongNorth Fund, with participation from the New Brunswick Innovation Foundation, which the announcement described as the largest single investment in that foundation's history.

The timing is deliberate. Canada's Communications Security Establishment has publicly assessed that a quantum computer capable of breaking modern encryption could emerge in the 2030s. Lastwall CEO Karl Holmqvist argues that waiting until that threshold arrives is precisely the wrong strategy, citing active "store now, decrypt later" campaigns in which adversaries are already harvesting encrypted data for future decryption.

Lastwall's platform takes an identity-first approach, using biometric credentials — face scans, fingerprints — rather than conventional two-factor authentication methods such as SMS codes, which Holmqvist notes carry their own vulnerability surface. The company has been operating in the U.S. market since a 2017 partnership with the Department of Defense and Defense Innovation Unit, established three years after its founding. This round explicitly pivots attention back to Canada.

With roughly 15 open roles currently posted in Fredericton, the hiring push is weighted toward engineers and sales and marketing professionals.

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## Why the Round Matters Beyond the Headline Number

$16 million is a modest raise by Silicon Valley standards but meaningful in the Canadian deep-tech context, particularly given BDC's StrongNorth Fund mandate, which focuses specifically on Canadian sovereignty in technology. The involvement of a Crown corporation as lead investor signals that Ottawa views [post-quantum cryptography](https://quantumintel.tech/glossary/fault-tolerant-quantum-computing) readiness as a national security procurement issue, not merely a commercial one.

The federal government has already announced a phased migration timeline, targeting 2031 for completion of the transition of high-priority federal systems to quantum-resistant cryptographic standards. That deadline creates a concrete, government-driven procurement window — which is the commercial thesis Lastwall is now moving to capture domestically after validating its technology with the U.S. Department of Defense.

**Skeptical read:** The source article is thin on technical specifics. We don't know which post-quantum algorithms Lastwall has implemented, whether they are NIST-standardized schemes (ML-KEM, ML-DSA, SLH-DSA), or how the biometric identity layer interacts with the cryptographic layer at a protocol level. "Identity-first" is a positioning claim, not a technical specification. Buyers evaluating this platform for critical infrastructure — power grids, hospital systems, financial rails — will need to see independent audits and standards conformance documentation before this becomes a serious procurement conversation.

The CSE spokesperson's framing that "current quantum computers are not yet capable of breaking modern encryption" is accurate but incomplete context. [NISQ](https://quantumintel.tech/glossary/nisq)-era machines lack the logical qubit counts and error correction depth to run Shor's algorithm at cryptographically relevant key sizes. The threat window is real but not imminent, which means the commercial urgency Lastwall is selling is a function of the store-now-decrypt-later threat model rather than near-term cryptographic breaks. That's a legitimate concern for classified or long-lived data — less so for most commercial transactions.

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## Industry Trajectory: Canada's PQC Ecosystem Is Consolidating

This raise fits a broader pattern. PQC-focused companies are positioning now to capture government migration budgets that will flow in earnest as the 2031 federal deadline approaches. Canada's angle — sovereign cryptographic capability, reduced dependence on single-source suppliers, interoperability with Five Eyes allies — mirrors postures being taken in the UK, Australia, and Germany.

Lastwall's U.S. DoD pedigree is its most credible differentiator in this market. Federal procurement in both countries heavily weights prior performance with defense and intelligence customers. The risk is whether a company of this size can scale delivery across both markets simultaneously while maintaining the security assurance standards that critical infrastructure buyers require.

For investors: the 2031 federal migration target is a hard deadline generating non-discretionary spending. That's a durable demand signal. The question is market share — how many Canadian PQC vendors will compete for these contracts, and whether Lastwall's identity-centric differentiation is defensible against larger cybersecurity primes that will inevitably enter this space.

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## Key Takeaways

- **$16 million raised** by Fredericton's Lastwall, led by BDC's StrongNorth Fund with New Brunswick Innovation Foundation participation (NBIF's largest-ever single investment per the announcement)
- **Lead investor is a Crown corporation**, signaling Canadian federal intent to build sovereign PQC capability ahead of a government-mandated 2031 migration deadline
- **Store-now, decrypt-later** campaigns are the immediate threat vector, not current quantum hardware — adversaries are harvesting encrypted data today
- **CSE assessment**: cryptographically relevant quantum computers could emerge in the 2030s; federal high-priority system migration targets 2031 completion
- **Lastwall's prior validation**: U.S. DoD and Defense Innovation Unit partnership established in 2017
- **~15 open roles** currently in Fredericton; the raise funds engineering and commercial hiring
- **Technical due diligence gap**: specific PQC algorithms and standards conformance not disclosed in source reporting

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## Frequently Asked Questions

**What is Lastwall and what does it do?**
Lastwall is a New Brunswick-based cybersecurity company that develops post-quantum cryptography defenses using an identity-first approach — biometric credentials such as face scans and fingerprints — to protect digital infrastructure against both current threats and future quantum-enabled attacks.

**What is "store now, decrypt later" and why is it relevant?**
Store-now, decrypt-later (SNDL) refers to adversaries capturing encrypted data today and archiving it until they have a sufficiently powerful quantum computer to break the encryption. This makes the PQC migration problem urgent even though cryptographically relevant quantum computers don't yet exist — any data that needs to remain secret for a decade or more is already at risk.

**When does Canada's government expect quantum computers to threaten current encryption?**
Canada's Communications Security Establishment has assessed that this capability could emerge in the 2030s. The federal government has set 2031 as its target completion date for migrating high-priority systems to quantum-resistant cryptographic standards.

**Who led Lastwall's $16 million funding round?**
The round was led by the Business Development Bank of Canada through its StrongNorth Fund, a Crown corporation vehicle. The New Brunswick Innovation Foundation also participated, making what was described as the largest single investment in its history.

**How does post-quantum cryptography differ from quantum cryptography?**
Post-quantum cryptography (PQC) refers to classical cryptographic algorithms mathematically resistant to quantum attacks — software solutions deployable on today's infrastructure. Quantum cryptography (such as quantum key distribution) uses quantum mechanical properties to secure communications. Lastwall is in the PQC space: classical software hardened against quantum-era threats, not a quantum hardware play.