Rigetti, a US-based quantum computing technology developer that counts media group Bloomberg as an investor, agreed a reverse merger with special purpose acquisition company Supernova Partners Acquisition Company II yesterday.
The deal gives Rigetti a pro forma valuation of approximately $1.5bn and the merged business, Rigetti Computing, will get the New York Stock Exchange listing taken by Supernova in a $300m initial public offering in March this year.
Measurement equipment producer Keysight, data analytics provider Palantir and fabless chipmaker Ampere Computing are contributing to a private placement sized at over $100m supporting the deal, along with T Rowe Price, Bessemer Venture Partners (BVP), Franklin Templeton and In-Q-Tel.
Rigetti has created a multi-chip quantum processor for use in quantum computing systems and had raised a total of almost $200m as of a series C round that closed at $79m in August 2020.
BVP led the 2020 round, participating alongside Franklin Templeton, Alumni Ventures Group, Data Collective (DCVC), Morpheus Ventures, Northgate Capital, EDBI and Mark Leslie.
Bloomberg-sponsored venture capital firm Bloomberg took part in Rigetti’s $24m series A round alongside Andreessen Horowitz led, Sutter Hill Ventures, Susa Ventures, Streamlined Ventures, Lux Capital, DCVC, Continuity Fund, AME Cloud Ventures, Morado Ventures, FF Science and WTI.
Vy Capital, Y Combinator Continuity Fund and Charlie Songhurst are also among the company’s earlier backers.
Chad Rigetti, founder and chief executive of Rigetti, said: “In the next decade one Rigetti quantum computer could be more powerful than today’s entire global cloud. Rigetti is the leading innovator in this space.
“Our team has solved the most pressing scientific problems associated with bringing quantum computing to market by creating a scalable computer and high-performance integration with existing computing systems.
“We plan to use this capital to accelerate our product development and accelerate our goal to bring this transformational computing capability to every major industry.”
