Spanish Startup Turning to Quantum Technology to Develop Unique Solutions for the Finance Industry

A time may come when we need a new solution to how we manage and invest our money. And already QC startup’s have one eye on the problem

Unique Solution To Financial Matters

It seems it will take a long time before we see a quantum computer doing things extraordinary, things never before seen. Although a lot has been promised, the reality is much soberer than we’d like to think. That, however, doesn’t mean at some point in the future we won’t be in awe of the magic of qubits. One aspect of quantum information science where practicable use cases are going to happen sooner rather than later is in financial services.

The business opportunities that quantum computing (QC) has enabled means several startups have appeared on the scene with their own unique solutions to financial matters working with quantum computers.

Canada’s CogniFrame, JoS Quantum from Germany and Spain’s Multiverse Computing are driving forward with innovative fixes for the financial industry that, if successful, could lead to a new paradigm of how and when we invest our money.

Quantum Mads, like Multiverse Computing, is another QC startup from Spain. Founded in May of this year by co-founders Eriz Zárate and Alain Mateo Armas, Quantum Mads headquarters are in the beautiful Basque region of north-eastern Spain.

“We are the future of quantum finance.”

— Quantum Mads

Quantum Mads

The startup was established to delve into the theoretical and practical dynamics of financial systems, find workable solutions that go against the current status quo of modelling techniques while — at the same time — serve their clients to the best of their abilities.

Quantum Mads has four core products to offer its customers. These are the

Q-MADS, a framework with a core Market Artificial Data Series (MADS), which will — according to the startup’s website — ‘allow traders to analyze their strategies and improve them with deep and complete analysis about their robustness.’

Then there’s Q-RETAIL, ‘a framework built on top of quantum software for retail banks.’

Next, is the hybrid quantum-classical algorithm called Q-ALLOCATE, designed to generate portfolio allocation weights.

Finally, we have the magically-named Q-CRYPTO, a ‘quantum algorithm to a “Single Source Shortest Path Search” problems for weighted directed acyclic graphs (DAGs)’.

All quite ambitious for a startup that only came into being post-Covid-19, but let’s not hold that against them.

So, who’s responsible for all this and what is the team’s background?

Quantum Mads’ CEO is Eriz Zárate. With a BA in pharmacy from the Universidad del País Vasco, Zárate’s educational credentials at first glance don’t align to what he’s currently doing at Quantum Mads, but education is only half the story: with half a decade’s experience as a founder and managing partner in tech startups in Spain, Zárate gets browny points for effort alone.

On Zárate’s entrepreneurial journey is his COO, Alain Mateo Armas, an expert in marketing and business management.

The two young men also founded the eponymous Zárate-Mateo Algorithmic Systems in 2018, a startup that develops quantum systems for finance using AI.

It seems like a week doesn’t go by without another startup — or at the very least a revolutionary breakthrough in the news — pops up with its own solutions using quantum information science.

And in the end, men (and women) like Zárate and Mateo are the ones who will, like the hippy, shoeless, college dropout that was Steve Jobs back in the mid-1970s, change the world.