Finnish quantum computing starts IQM Now a Unicorn: The company has just raised over $300 million in Series B funding matches, the round is Eleven dollarsan American investment company focused on cybersecurity.
IQM’s university rotates to build quantum computers for local installations, as well as a cloud platform that taps this hardware. The company has sold its quantum computers to companies in Apac and the United States, but its strongest market remains Europe.
That’s what this round is about to change: The startup is planning to use new cash for commercial advancements and research and development to relate to the market’s growing understanding of the advancement of quantum science into practical impacts.
To win our customers over competition from big tech companies like IBM, Google, and Microsoft, IQM knows it must accelerate its roadmap for hardware and software. According to its co-CEO and co-founder Jan Goetz, this means more investment in the company’s chip manufacturing facilities as well as software development and error correction research.
The ability to correct, detect and fix errors inherent in quantum systems is a hot topic because the concept of making quantum computers competitive is being redefined – the concept of being able to compute a large number of Qubits is less than today’s Holy Grail. “It’s always a trade-off between quantum quantity and quality and reliability,” Goetz said.
Navigation is a trade-off that is critical to developing real-world use of quantum computing that has long been envisioned but not prioritized. But now Quantum surpasses traditional supercomputers Companies like IQM no longer look like science fiction, trying to ensure their computers use real-life applications faster.
Apart from reliability, IQM’s roadmap and the industry’s growing focus on the software layer will be required to take quantum computing in the hands of its first end user: experts with PHD in fields that are not quantum computing.
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Goetz said the direct goal of IQM’s software-related is to build a developer platform that is similar to “SDK for quantum computing” with the goal of “attracting as many developers as possible to start working on our machines.” As an alternative IBM’s methodthis platform will rely on QRISPan open source project based in the Berlin Institute.
The second Finland-based IQM-based most of its 300 employees, most of which are large R&D units working in Munich, said Goetz. “But with this round, we want to grow our team and create more business traction, especially in the United States”
Goetz said in the future, the company is considering “becoming more operational in the United States.” “One thing we are thinking about is that if we sell more systems in the US, we can have local gatherings.”
But IQM will continue to focus on sales in the United States for the time being. The company recently sold a local quantum computer to Oak Ridge National Laboratory, a science lab run by the U.S. Department of Energy.
According to Alex Doll, co-founder and general partner of Eleven Ventures, there is a strong overlap between the investment firm’s paper and the focus of IQM. “Quantum computing will be a key pillar of the next era of cybersecurity and computing innovation,” Doll said, adding that he also joined the IQM board of directors as part of the fundraising.
The fact that $11 has a strong network in the U.S. makes it a perfect fit for the startup, Goetz said.
Series B also saw investments from Finnish investment firms TESI, Schwarz Group, Winbond Electronics Corporation, EIC, Bayern Kapital and World Fund. According to IQM, this new round brings its total funding to $600 million so far.
Goetz believes the startup has reached commercial and technological milestones over the past few months is justified. “We are now the company that sells the most global quantum computers on all major continents,” he said.
Absolute quantity remains small – by the end of 2024, the company reached a production milestone 30 quantum computers. This can only remind the industry that there is a long way to go before reaching a wider audience.
Still, IQM’s 54 Qubit chips are already used in computing centers, research labs, universities and enterprises, and Goetz says the company is now heading to deploy its first 150 Qubit system — a fact that seems to be more important to him than IQM.
