QuantWare, a startup providing large-scale superconducting quantum processes, has raised €6 million in new investment. The Delft-based team aims to make quantum computing more scalable, fueling development of this impactful emerging tech.
Quantum computing has the potential to shape future technologies and it’s a disruptive area of tech development. So far, superconducting qubits have been leading the quantum computing race – but they’ve yet to scale to beneficial qubit counts. QuantWare, a spin-out from TU Delft / QuTech has developed a scalable alternative.
The startup has now secured €6 million to accelerate the development of its quantum processors. The round was led by Forward.One, with QDNL Participations and Graduate Entrepreneur also contributing.
Paul Pruijmboom, Partner at FORWARD.one Venture Capital for Hardware, said: “We are proud to have been one of the first investors to see QuantWare’s potential in 2021. With this Seed Round investment, QuantWare will continue to spearhead innovation in the superconducting quantum space and accelerate the advent of real-world quantum applications.”
Launched in 2020, QuantWare develops, designs and fabricates scalable, superconducting quantum processors. The aim is to become the ‘Intel of quantum computing’ by providing easy-to-use, increasingly powerful and affordable quantum processors to organisations across the world.
QuantWare’s processors enable users to build a quantum computer for a reported 1/10th of the cost of competing solutions.
Last year, QuantWare was selected to deliver quantum processing units for Israel’s first fully functional quantum computer. Now with this new investment, the deeptech startup will accelerate the production and development of its 64-qubit processor ‘Tenor’. The device provides more than twice the number of qubits compared to its previous largest QPU at a lower price point.
Matthijs Rijlaarsdam, CEO of QuantWare, said: “We believe that one of the key ways to supercharge development of the quantum computing sector is to provide the technology to enable companies to significantly scale their solutions at much lower costs. This is what Tenor enables, and with this funding we will be able to ramp up production and continue development of even more powerful processors.”
Based in Delft, the company’s tech will massively scale the number of qubits in a single processor, to create processors that can perform useful quantum computation in the near term. This also opens the door to ‘quantum advantage’ where quantum computers will overtake the most powerful classical computer.
Tenor marks a significant advance in commercial quantum computing because it is the first device commercially available that features this technology.
Ton van ‘t Noordende, Managing Director of QDNL Participations, said: “We’re incredibly excited to back Matthijs, Alessandro and the team as they continue to develop and deliver state-of-the-art Quantum Processor Units. They’re well on their way to deliver quantum advantage to end users and perfectly positioned to serve both R&D and commercial markets in the future.”
Ludolf Stavenga, Partner at Graduate Entrepreneur, said: “QuantWare is built on state-of-the-art technology from TU Delft. We are delighted to see this technology being used to make an impact in the world by QuantWare.”