Zapata Computing, a US-based quantum computing spinout of Harvard University, raised $21m yesterday in a series A round co-led by Comcast Ventures, the corporate venturing arm of mass media conglomerate Comcast.
BASF Venture Capital and Robert Bosch Venture Capital, respective investment subsidiaries of chemicals producer BASF and industrial technology and appliance producer Robert Bosch, also participated in the round, which was co-led by venture capital firm Prelude Ventures.
The round also featured The Engine, the incubator formed by Massachusetts Institute of Technology, as well as VC firms Pitango Ventures and Pillar VC.
Founded in 2017, Zapata Computing is commercialising quantum algorithms that can be used in high-performance computing in sectors requiring vast processing power, such as chemistry, pharmaceuticals, logistics, finance and materials production.
The software platform is hardware-agnostic, operating across devices built by companies such as Google, IBM and Honeywell. It builds on work led by Alán Aspuru-Guzik, who was a professor at Harvard at the time but has since moved to University of Toronto.
Aspuru-Guzik co-founded Zapata together with four members of his research team: Yudong Cao, Jonathan Olson, Peter Johnson and Jhonathan Romero. Zapata’s CEO is another co-founder, Christopher Savoie, who had worked on a project that led to the development of technology group Apple’s Siri voice assistant.
The series A funding will support Zapata’s expansion efforts, enabling the startup to accelerate its product development and enter new markets and geographies.
Zapata received $5.4m in seed funding in April 2018, a month before it was officially unveiled. The seed round was co-led by The Engine and Pillar VC, with participation from Prelude Ventures and Founders Fund’s FF Science vehicle.
The original version of this article appeared on our sister site, Global University Venturing.