So, this is the topic of today’s post, quantum computing companies located in San Francisco or close enough to warrant inclusion.
Now, though we include quantum computing companies with headquarters in Palo Alto and San Mateo, those in Berkeley and Fremont are given a shout-out, too. What we’re trying to get at is, though the birthplace of the silicon chip and transistor is a well-known and defined geographical location, the area is now home to many startups in the deep tech industries, including quantum computing (QC).
The seven quantum computing companies in San Francisco listed don’t seem a great deal in the grand scheme of things, particularly when you think, according to some sources, Silicon Valley is home to at least 2000 tech companies.
What we have to realize is, though, quantum computing and quantum information science (QIS) are still in the nascent stage of their development. The seven included will grow with time, no doubt, just like the industry they’re helping to define.
TQD has omitted the likes of Quantum Thought (Menlo Park), QuDot (Fremont), and Turing (Berkeley), not because we don’t value them, but more so to make this a shorter piece.
If you want to learn more, we’ve also compiled the list of the World’s top quantum computing companies today!
7 San Francisco-Based Quantum Computing Companies
1. Atom Computing (Berkeley)
Founded in Berkeley by CEO Benjamin Bloom and lead scientist Jonathan King in 2018, Atom Computing is a quantum computing company developing truly scalable quantum computers “atom by atom”. The startup realizes atoms are nature’s perfect quantum bits that can be controlled optically, without wires.
The $5 million the startup raised in a Seed round in 2018, along with an expert team of quantum and software engineers, will only help the two co-founders reach the goal they set out to achieve for Atom Computing in the first place.
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2. Bleximo Corp. (Berkeley)
Like Atom Computing, Bleximo is a Berkeley-based quantum computing company founded by Alexei Marchenkov and Richard Maydra in 2017. The company is building a novel kind of quantum computing system called the “quantum accelerator”, which operates in “conjunction with conventional powerful computers to tackle problems which are impractical or even impossible to solve on conventional digital computers alone.”
Having raised $1.5 million in a Seed round led by Eniac Ventures back in 2018, the startup hopes its IP can simulate the structure and properties of molecules and chemical reactions, helping the pharmaceutical industry with drug discovery and design.
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3. equal1.labs (Fremont)
With offices in Fremont California, as well as Dublin, Ireland, equal1.labs was founded by UCD Professor R. Bogdan Staszewski, Dr Dirk Leipold and Mike Asker in 2017. A spinoff from the UCD School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, the startup has “developed a disruptive, scalable and cost-effective QC technology based on a commercially available silicon semiconductor process.”
Equal1.labs utilizes nanometer-scale quantum dots to form qubits on a standard silicon CMOS process.
This quantum computing startup was named ‘one to watch’ by Nature Research, as part of its inaugural Spinoff* Prize in collaboration with Merck, and with funding (according to TechIreland data) equalling €2.4 million from Enterprise Ireland and Atlantic Bridge.
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4. PsiQuantum (Palo Alto)
In the news a lot recently from the $150 million of capital injection led by Atomico, the Palo Alto-based quantum computing startup PsiQuantum has now raised a total of $215 million in funding to revolutionize the world of medicine, energy and finance since its founding in 2016.
Aware a useful quantum computer requires at least a million qubits and error correction, PsiQuantum’s co-founders Jeremy O’Brien, Terry Rudolph, Mark Thompson, and Pete Shadbolt have gone down the photonics path to building a useful quantum computer that will benefit us all.
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5. QC Ware (Palo Alto)
Founders Matt Johnson, KJ Sham and Randy Correll set up QC Ware back in 2014. Similar to PsiQuantum, QC Ware has headquarters in Palo Alto, in the heart of Silicon Valley, but also has offices in Paris, France, and plans to launch a Tokyo office soon. A quantum computing software startup, it wants to make Quantum Computing more “easily accessible to classically-trained data scientists and to offer performance speed-ups on near-term hardware”.
QC Ware has raised $14.7 million in funding since 2015, with $6.5 million of that raised in 2018 in a Series A round led by investors Citi and Goldman Sachs.
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6. QuSecure (San Mateo)
Rebecca Krauthamer, Dave Krauthamer, Konstantin Vilk, and Skip Sanzeri founded QuSecure in 2019. Based in San Mateo, a city some 20 miles south of San Francisco and 30 miles northwest of San Jose, QuSecure is developing advanced quantum resilient technology to secure businesses from cyber attacks using quantum key management patent-pending Quantum Transport Layer Security (QTLS).
QuSecure has raised approximately $500,000 in seed funding since 2019.
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7. Rigetti Computing (Berkeley)
Those who know anything about quantum should know the name Rigetti Computing, which along with D-Wave Systems is one of the legacy startups in the space. Founded in 2013 by Chad Rigetti, Rigetti has two offices, one in Berkeley and the other in Fremont, California.
Unique as it is the only quantum computing company “deploying full-stack solutions for hybrid classical/quantum computing, Rigetti’s 19-qubit quantum computer is available online through its cloud platform called Forest that allows programmers to write their own quantum algorithms.
As far as funding goes, Rigetti has raised a total of $198.5 million since 2014, with $79 million of that coming in a Series C round in the summer of 2020.
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Have we missed any out or got something wrong? If so, don’t hesitate to contact us at [email protected].
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