Britain’s biggest taxpayer backs ‘Mission Impossible’ data storage tech

An investment firm run by Britain’s biggest taxpayer has backed a revolutionary “5D” data technology that stores information in glass.

XTX Ventures, the venture capital arm of Alex Gerko’s trading giant XTX Markets, has invested in a $4.3m (£3.2m) seed funding round for Southampton University spin-off SPhotonix.

The company’s technology uses lasers to etch thousands of layers of patterns in silica glass, and can store 50 terabytes – enough to store the entirety of Wikipedia 2,000 times – in a 2cm square.

The company’s technology is featured in the latest Mission Impossible film, in which Tom Cruise traps a rogue artificial intelligence in the 5D drive.

The company is in discussions with major tech companies about deploying the storage systems in data centres.

This follows a recent explosion in the amount of digital information being created worldwide, alongside concerns around the soaring cost of existing storage tech.

SPhotonix’s technology was developed with years of research at the University of Southampton, partially funded by Microsoft.

It is run by Ilya Kazansky, whose father, Peter, pioneered the research. Mr Kazansky said the technology was now advanced enough and cost-effective enough to be sold to tech firms.

XTX Ventures is the investing arm of XTX Markets, Mr Gerko’s high-tech trading firm, which has made its founder one of Britain’s richest men and reportedly its biggest taxpayer.

It has already invested in companies such as British driverless car start-up Wayve.

XTX is investing more than $1bn in powerful data centres, and could make use of SPhotonix’s technology, Mr Kazansky said.

The company’s storage system could, in theory, last billions of years, compared to around two decades for magnetic tape, which is used inside today’s data centres for long-term “cold” storage, data that is kept but does not have to be instantly accessed.

Its durability could also make it useful for data centres built in space, an idea that many tech bosses have expressed an interest in owing to the prospect of continuous solar power and no need for the expensive cooling systems used on Earth.

Mr Kazansky said the cost of the technology would be “much cheaper than anything that’s on the market right now”.

Gabriele Papievyte, the head of XTX Ventures said: “We were deeply impressed by SPhotonix’s dedication to developing their unique technology for data storage and advanced optics, and we are excited to help them on their journey.”

The company has also been backed by Creator Fund, a European venture capital fund that invests in university spin-outs.

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