Qpher
Solo-founder startup offering post-quantum cryptography as drop-in REST APIs and SDKs, implementing NIST's ML-KEM and ML-DSA standards with enclave-held keys.
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Qpher is a Richmond, Virginia-based post-quantum cryptography startup founded in 2026 by Vincent Wang, who describes twelve years of experience on U.S. federal systems at agencies including the VA, DHS, USCIS, and DFC. The company offers post-quantum cryptography as drop-in REST APIs, implementing NIST’s finalized ML-KEM-768 (formerly Kyber) for encryption and ML-DSA-65 (formerly Dilithium) for digital signatures, both standardized in FIPS 203 and 204.
The product targets developers who need quantum-safe cryptography without building NIST-standard implementations themselves. Private keys are held inside secure enclaves with no export endpoint by design, and the company offers SDKs for Python, Node.js, and Go, plus an MCP server aimed at AI agents that need to call cryptographic operations. A free tier is available for prototyping, and a newer SDK release adds support for SLH-DSA (FIPS 205) hash-based signatures.
Qpher launched publicly on Product Hunt with a modest reception and has not disclosed any funding round, named enterprise customers, or independent security audit of its implementation. It remains a very early-stage, single-founder operation, albeit one built on standard, NIST-finalized cryptographic primitives rather than proprietary algorithms.
Innovation Matrix Assessment
A solo founder shipped a working REST API, SDKs in three languages, and an MCP server implementing NIST's finalized ML-KEM/ML-DSA standards within months.
Drop-in PQC APIs with enclave-held keys lower the integration bar for teams needing quantum-safe crypto without deep in-house cryptographic expertise.
A Product Hunt launch with a handful of upvotes, no disclosed funding, and no named customers or revenue.
Wraps standard NIST algorithms behind a convenient API; a packaging and developer-experience improvement rather than a new cryptographic approach.
No independent security audit of the implementation or of the enclave key-handling claims was found.
Demand for accessible PQC migration tooling will persist as 2027 compliance deadlines approach, though this specific vendor's long-term survival is unproven.
Why CISOs Should Care
Lets engineering teams add NIST-standard quantum-safe encryption and signatures through a simple API call instead of implementing ML-KEM/ML-DSA cryptography in-house, lowering the bar for starting a PQC migration.
What Makes It Different
Packages PQC as developer-first REST APIs and SDKs with private keys held in secure enclaves and no export path by design, plus an MCP server aimed at AI agents.
The Matrix Verdict
33/100 — EMERGING / UNRANKED
A genuine, working product built on standard NIST algorithms by a single founder with federal systems experience, but with no disclosed funding, named customers, or independent security audit, this is an Emerging/Unranked company to watch rather than one to rank highly today.
Editorial Note: Claims vs. Verified Findings
Enclave key-handling and "no export endpoint, by design" are the founder's own product claims; no independent security audit of the implementation was found, and the marketing site was intermittently unreachable during this review.
Sources
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