Finnish quantum startup IQM is aiming to secure more than the €128m it raised at its last round, as startups in the sector race to scale following a series of technical breakthroughs.
Founded in 2018, IQM is the second best-funded quantum hardware company in Europe, excluding Big Tech, according to Sifted data, having raised a total $210m from investors including Tencent, World Fund and MIG Capital.
In a recent Sifted interview, CEO Jan Goetz told Sifted the company is “constantly fundraising” and planned to raise “a multiple” of the €128m it raised in 2022.
On Tuesday, Bloomberg reported the company was in talks to raise more than $200m in funding. Goetz confirmed fundraising is still ongoing, but declined to comment when asked about the $200m figure.
The startup is building full-stack superconducting quantum computers — and the chips to put in them — and sells quantum compute time through the cloud. It has its own private chip factory which has capacity to produce up to 20 quantum computers per year.
IQM’s fundraising talks follow a series of technical breakthroughs in quantum by Big Tech companies, raising hopes that practical applications of the tech could be closer than previously imagined.
Making practical quantum a reality
While scientists expect that quantum will deliver groundbreaking computational power once fully developed, moving the tech from theoretical to practical has been beset by technical challenges.
Qubits — the quantum equivalent of bits in a normal computer — only hold their quantum state for very short periods, resulting in errors that limit the size and performance of the machines.
In February, Microsoft claimed a breakthrough after unveiling a new quantum chip which it said showed a path to developing a large-scale quantum computer in years rather than decades — though some in the industry threw cold water on its significance.
In December, Google said that it had broken new ground on a technical challenge around the instability of quantum systems with its Willow chip.
IQM is one of a number of increasingly well-funded European players in the quantum space. Others include UK’s Oxford Quantum Circuits and France’s Pasqal, which have both raised more than $100m.
Some of IQM’s US competitors have raised much larger sums of capital. PsiQuantum, for instance — which differs from IQM in that it builds photon-based quantum computers — has raised $1.6bn to date, according to Dealroom data.
That additional funding is straining an already creaking talent pool, as startups in the space compete with each other and deep-pocketed Big Tech companies to secure a limited group of experts.
