The Very Small Group is a Bahrain, Bangalore, and Silicon Valley effort focused on early-stage research and development in areas where advances at small scales can lead to meaningful technological progress. The group explores opportunities at the intersection of hardware, software, and science, with an emphasis on building practical capabilities over time in nanotechnology, quantum computing, and microprocessors.
Its work is exploratory and long-term in nature, covering areas such as sensing technologies, semiconductor design, and emerging computational approaches. The group takes a focused, step-by-step approach, developing ideas at a small scale and advancing those that show clear technical and commercial potential.
Nanotechnology
The Very Small Group is conducting early-stage research and development into technologies that operate at extremely small scales, with an initial focus on sensing, advanced materials, and nanoscale devices. Current R&D is focused on identifying applications where developments in nanotechnology can move beyond laboratory research and form the basis of practical products and commercial technologies.
Over time, the company plans to develop a dedicated nanotechnology division with its own research team, laboratory capabilities, and partnerships with universities and specialist research institutions. Areas of interest include nanosensors, nanomaterials, nanoelectronics, biomedical applications, and technologies that exploit the unusual physical properties that emerge at the nanoscale.
The long-term objective is to build proprietary technologies and intellectual property that can ultimately be developed into independent products, businesses, or joint ventures.
Quantum Computing
The Very Small Group is exploring the rapidly developing field of quantum computing, with current R&D focused primarily on understanding where quantum technologies are likely to create commercially useful capabilities and identifying areas in which a smaller research organisation can make a meaningful contribution.
Initial work includes research into quantum algorithms, simulation, optimisation, quantum sensing, and the interaction between conventional and quantum computing systems. The company intends to use access to existing quantum computing platforms for experimentation and software development while progressively building internal expertise.
The longer-term plan is to establish a dedicated quantum technologies division encompassing quantum software and algorithms initially, with the potential to expand into quantum sensing, control systems, components, and selected areas of quantum hardware research as the company’s technical capabilities grow.
Microprocessors
The Very Small Group’s microprocessor research is focused on the opportunities created by increasingly specialized computing architectures. Current R&D includes the study and development of processor architectures, specialized accelerators, embedded computing systems, and semiconductor designs optimized for particular applications rather than general-purpose computing.
The company plans to progressively develop an internal semiconductor design capability, beginning with architecture, simulation, FPGA-based prototyping, and the design of specialized chips that can be manufactured through external semiconductor foundries.
Over the longer term, the objective is to build a dedicated semiconductor division capable of developing proprietary processors and application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs). Particular areas of interest include AI acceleration, edge computing, ultra-low-power devices, sensor processing, robotics, and specialized processors designed for emerging computational workloads.