Wenmiao Yu

Wenmiao Yu studied Chemistry at Balliol College, University of Oxford, graduating with an MChem degree. It was at Oxford that her career pivoted decisively toward entrepreneurship: in 2019 she joined the university's inaugural Student Entrepreneurs Programme (StEP), run by Oxford Sciences Enterprises and Oxford University Innovation, where she met the four co-founders who would form the founding team of Quantum Dice. That competition, designed to connect students with commercial opportunities emerging from Oxford research, brought her together with scientists working on a world-record-breaking quantum random number generator in the university's Quantum Optics group — and she immediately recognised the significance of what they had built.

Yu co-founded Quantum Dice in 2019 and serves as Director of Business Development, leading fundraising, market creation and commercialisation strategy for the company's quantum security products. Following the company's founding, she was awarded an Enterprise Fellowship at the Quantum Technology Enterprise Centre (QTEC) at the University of Bristol — becoming the youngest across all cohorts — where she spent over a year developing the business plan and conducting market research alongside the technical team. She also participated in the Entrepreneur stream of the Creative Destruction Lab in Toronto, gaining further grounding in how to build deep-tech companies from academic IP.

At Quantum Dice, Yu has been instrumental in securing key partnerships, including with the STFC Hartree Centre, and in positioning the company within the broader quantum technologies ecosystem through relationships with defence partners, cybersecurity vendors and national security organisations. She is an active advocate for equality, diversity and inclusion in quantum technologies, mentoring students through the Oxford Women in Business Society and serving on the committee for New Voices in Space within the Scottish Space Leadership Council. She is also a member of the UK Young Academy, contributing to strategy and communications for the organisation.

Quantum Dice has received backing from Elaia Partners, IP Group and the UK Innovation and Science Seed Fund, and in 2025 was selected as one of only 40 deep-tech startups from over 1,000 applicants to receive a £1.8m European Innovation Council Accelerator grant. Yu was named a Royal Academy of Engineering Enterprise Fellow, and the company was recognised as a winner of the World Economic Forum's Quantum for Society Challenge — validation of both the technology and the team's capacity to translate quantum science into real-world impact.