US-based quantum computing technology developer PsiQuantum has received $215m in funding from investors including software provider Microsoft’s corporate venturing subsidiary, M12, Bloomberg reported yesterday.
Venture capital firms Playground Global, Atomico, Founders Fund and Redpoint Ventures also took part in the round, as did investment manager BlackRock, co-founder and CEO Jeremy O’Brien told Bloomberg.
Founded in 2016, PsiQuantum is working on a commercial quantum computer that will offer a million qubits: the point at which the technology would become general-purpose and useful to businesses.
Qubits, or quantum bits, can be put into three states – on (or 1), off (or 0) and both simultaneously – as opposed to binary bits in contemporary computers which can only be designated 1 or 0.
The difference would allow quantum computers to store vastly more data and run calculations at a speed far beyond that currently possible even with supercomputers, potentially reducing processing exercises that would currently take centuries to a matter of minutes.
PsiQuantum was spun out of University of Bristol and was co-founded by chief executive Jeremy O’Brien, then a professor of physics and electrical engineering at the university and director of its Centre for Quantum Photonics.
Samir Kumar, managing director of M12, said: “While it is enticing to imagine the benefits and opportunities of a quantum computer, PsiQuantum is not distracted by what is beyond the finish line.
“They are disciplined and focused on the task at hand: delivering on a machine with hundreds of error-corrected, logical qubits. We at M12 have been impressed by the PsiQuantum team and look forward to their continued development.”
The company had reportedly secured $230m in funding in November 2019 from an unnamed fund formed by Playground Global founder Andy Rubin, though PsiQuantum has not confirmed whether that was in fact an iteration of the funding disclosed this week.
The original version of this article appeared on our sister site, Global University Venturing.