Quantum computing, long relegated to the realm of theoretical, feels like it is back on the agenda as a potentially viable alternative to the expensive race for more powerful compute.
On the heels of some notable advancements in quantum chips and error correction (two of the key areas that have kept quantum computers from becoming a reality), today a startup out of Boston called QuEra said that it has closed financing of $230 million from the likes of Google and SoftBank. The plan is to use the money to get it to its next stage of growth: building a “useful” fully-quantum computer in the next three to five years.
But notably, the financing is not equity. It’s a convertible note that QuEra’s team says will be converted into equity when the company next raises an equity round.
The company, which is currently being led by an interim CEO — the enterprise tech vet Andy Ory — declined to give a timeline for that next equity funding round.
To date, QuEra has raised just under $50 million, including this $17 million round that we covered 2021. QuEra said that the longer list of investors signed on to this convertible note are Google (leading), with SoftBank Vision Fund, Valor Equity Partners, and QuEra’s existing investors, including QVT Family Office, Safar Partners, and others that are not being named.
As this is a note, there is no valuation being provided with this latest financing. But Yuval Boger, QuEra’s COO, described the valuation as “a very substantial increase” compared to QuEra’s previous round. “I know you probably have a very good sense of what the valuation of a $230 million significant up-round might be,” he added. A conservative, basic guess is $400 million, although it’s a note, not equity, so anything can happen.
One detail that does give QuEra a notable boost: the company is already making revenues.
The company has also been seeing some revenues coming in by way of its cloud services. In November 2022 started to offer quantum compute over AWS, by way of its 256-qubit computer (its first generation machine), which today, Boger said, is mostly used for pilots and proof-of-concept experiments.
QuEra is exploring expanding that to other clouds but so far has not announced anything. Boger said that the financing from Google — which QuEra said is supported by Google’s Quantum AI business unit — does not include any tie-ins of any kind of Google Cloud Platform.
QuEra’s funding is part of what looks to be a notable surge for quantum computing startups. Less than two weeks ago, Alice&Bob, another quantum computing startup based in Paris, snapped up $104 million. Other big rounds have included Cambridge, Engliand-based Riverlane, building technology to correct quantum errors, raising $75 million; quantum chip maker SEEQC, which raised $30 million in January.
Quantum Machines in Israel is reportedly also in the process of raising $100 million. (We have reached out to Quantum Machines and it has declined to comment on those reports.)
And perhaps the biggest of all, last year, Quantinuum raised $300 million at a $5 billion valuation. There is now talk of it listing at a $10 billion valuation.
For the moment, given we have yet to see a fully-functioning, commercially available quantum machine, a lot of the work among these and other companies are doing is scattered across a range of approaches, all aiming for ways to improve error and fail rates when computations are carried out.
The particular aim for QuEra — which had 69 employees at the end of 2024 and aims to have 130+ by end of 2025 — is to build a neutral atom quantum super computer, which relies in part on using lasers to cool atoms in the computing process to reduce errors.
“We think we have the right architectural approach to actually get to what we would consider the Holy Grail, which would be quantum computing that is discontinuous with real quantum advantage,” said Ory in an interview.
“Taking a partner like Google to look at what we’re doing, and the people we’ve been able to attract… it’s all coming together, and we feel validated and that QuEra is at a position where its resources, its science and its people are going to allow us to be one of a few companies to really deliver the first scalable, useful quantum computer.”
But so far, with the multitude of approaches, it hasn’t been a race but rather a marathon, with no firm finish line. Alex Keesling, the co-founder and former CEO of QuEra who invented the technology that is at the core of the product, is now in a role overseeing the technical implementations as QuEra works to build out its hardware, and QuEra, like others in the space, are working to flexible deadlines as they inch closer to bringing their ideas to reality.
The longer term promise is a tantalising one. As compute gets more expensive and new technologies like AI are putting ever greater pressure on resources, the industry is looking for solutions that could leapfrog those workloads, or at least complement them, with something more powerful. Believers say quantum computing will be the solution.
“We believe that if we can get to 100 logical error-corrected qubits with the ability to run a million instructions without an error, that there will be useful applications for quantum computing that offer advantages over regular computers,” Ory said. “We believe that. We think that’s going to create a tremendous amount of value for material science, life science, simulation, optimization problems and so forth.”
