Dr Ramy Shelbaya
Dr Ramy Shelbaya is the CEO and co-founder of Quantum Dice, an Oxford University spin-out developing quantum random number generators and probabilistic computing technology for cybersecurity and enterprise AI workloads. Born in Egypt, Shelbaya completed his doctoral research at the University of Oxford in quantum photonics, specialising in the physics of photon sources and optical quantum systems that underpin Quantum Dice's core technology. His academic background gave him direct access to the laboratory research that would become the company's founding IP.
Shelbaya was among the five Oxford students who met through the university's inaugural Student Entrepreneurs Programme (StEP) in 2019 and recognised the commercial potential of a world-record-breaking quantum random number generator developed in Oxford's Quantum Optics research group. Led by Professor Ian Walmsley, the group had developed a QRNG prototype achieving 8.05 Gbps of post-processed quantum random numbers — and Shelbaya, alongside co-founders Wenmiao Yu, Zhanet Zaharieva, Marko Mayr and George Dunlop, saw a clear path from that research breakthrough to a product that could underpin the next generation of encryption infrastructure.
As CEO, Shelbaya leads Quantum Dice's commercial and strategic direction, overseeing the company's transition from a cybersecurity-focused QRNG provider to the developer of the ORBIT probabilistic computing platform — a broader architecture targeting optimisation and AI inference workloads that are expensive on conventional hardware. He has guided the company through multiple funding rounds and the development of its Lagrange 0 system, the first commercial offering built on ORBIT, which operates at room temperature without the cryogenic requirements of fully quantum systems.
Under Shelbaya's leadership, Quantum Dice was selected in 2025 as one of 40 deep-tech startups from over 1,000 applicants to receive a £1.8m European Innovation Council Accelerator grant — one of only three UK companies in the cohort. The company has also been recognised by the World Economic Forum as a Quantum for Society Challenge winner and has established a partnership with the STFC Hartree Centre. Shelbaya has articulated a medium-term vision of building a commercially ready probabilistic processing unit and growing a developer ecosystem around it as probabilistic computing becomes a recognised paradigm for industrial AI.
