Series A2 Funding
IQM Quantum Computers (IQM), a Finland-based company that provides on-premises quantum computers for supercomputing data centres and research labs, announced today it has raised €128 million ($128m) in Series A2 funding led by World Fund to expand its international business and accelerate product development to tackle the world’s most pressing problems, especially in the climate crisis.
The funding, which follows a €39m ($39m) Series A1 announcement in 2020 and includes part of a €35m ($35m) venture loan from the European Investment Bank (EIB) announced earlier this year, makes it the largest ever funding round raised by a European quantum computing company. Participants in the round included Bayern Kapital, EIC Fund, OurCrowd, QCI SPV, Tofino and Varma, as well as existing investors Maki.vc, Matadero QED, MIG Fonds, OpenOcean, Salvia GmbH, Santo Venture Capital GmbH, Tencent, Tesi, and Vsquared.
Fast Growth
Founded in 2018 by a highly ambitious team of world-leading scientists having built several successful quantum labs and research centres globally during the past two decades, IQM has become the fastest-growing quantum computer company and has cemented its position as the European leader in building superconducting quantum computers.
Another thing to IQM’s credit is that it’s the only European company already delivering full-stack quantum systems.
Boasting one of the largest teams of quantum experts in Europe, numerous research laboratories and supercomputing centres use IQM’s on-premises quantum computers to combat challenging problems in logistics healthcare, finance, and chemistry. But that’s not all, the company’s innovative co-design strategy also enables industrial customers to work closely with IQM to achieve quantum advantage based on application-specific processors.
So far, world governments’ and global companies’ efforts to limit the consequences of global warming to 1.5 degrees by 2050 have proven that serious measures are required to discover the solutions that will actually make a difference to the planet.
And quantum computing could be an important part of that solution, due to the technology’s capability to model solutions that current levels of classical computing power can’t do.
According to McKinsey forecasting, quantum computing could reduce carbon dioxide emissions by seven gigatons a year by 2035, which could help to decarbonize power and fuel, re-shaping industrial operations and reform food and forestry.
Tackling The Climate Crisis
The investment will also help IQM in dedicating resources to co-designing quantum computer processors to provide solutions to tackle the climate crisis and promote sustainable development to improve lives around the world, as well as boosting technological capacity and innovation in areas such as energy grid optimization and climate modelling.
IQM is already investigating novel approaches to develop better battery solutions with a leading car manufacturer, as well as ground-breaking methods for new material design and quantum algorithms that can be used to tackle climate problems. Yet, this is only the beginning of IQM’s climate goals. World Fund only invests in technologies with a Climate Performance Potential (CPP) of removing 100 million tonnes of carbon from the atmosphere annually by 2040. The fund’s CPP calculations show that the battery performance and adoption use cases alone would enable IQM’s technology to exceed this threshold.
Already boasting partnerships with organizations such as Atos, VTT and Infineon to develop solutions that leverage this transformative technology, this new funding will allow IQM to grow its international business operations, accelerate research and spearhead exciting product development.
Dr. Sierk Poetting, Chairman of IQM Quantum Computers, said on the investment:
“This financing round is a significant milestone that recognizes our recent technological milestones and contributes to the acceleration of IQM’s development efforts. We value the continued participation of our existing investors and welcome new investors to this powerful syndicate.”
While Dr. Jan Goetz, CEO and Co-founder of IQM Quantum Computers, put it this way: “This funding underscores the importance of our mission: building quantum computers for the well-being of humankind. It also demonstrates the confidence in our business model and the continued trust in our team’s ability to build the future of quantum technologies. I am confident that we will continue to achieve all our product and business milestones and deliver world-class quantum computers to our customers.”
Founding Partner at World Fund, Daria Saharova, gave her company’s view: “Quantum computing holds the potential to drive the breakthroughs needed to help solve the climate crisis. We are proud to lead this round and support IQM’s ambition to deliver quantum advantage to climate and sustainability goals. This investment aligns with our commitment to back only companies with the highest climate performance potential (CPP) so that our portfolio can save two gigatonnes of emissions yearly by 2040 — the equivalent to four percent of all global emissions. It gives us immense pleasure to support the amazing IQM team and its founders, who have meticulously and consistently built IQM with a strong on-premises business model focused on high-performance computing centres and national quantum labs. We look forward to being a part of their growth phase towards global leadership.”
ABOUT IQM QUANTUM COMPUTERS
IQM is the pan-European leader in building quantum computers. IQM provides on-premises quantum computers for supercomputing data centres and research labs and offers full access to its hardware. For industrial customers, IQM delivers a quantum advantage through a unique application-specific, co-design approach. IQM is building Finland’s first 54-qubit quantum computer with VTT and an IQM-led consortium (Q-Exa) is also building a quantum computer in Germany. This computer will be integrated into an HPC supercomputer to create a quantum accelerator for future scientific research. IQM has over 180+ employees with offices in Paris, Madrid, Munich and Espoo.
Press Contact
Raghunath Koduvayur, Head of Marketing and Communications
Email: [email protected]
Mobile: +358 50 4876509
Website: www.meetiqm.com
ABOUT WORLD FUND
World Fund is the largest European-focused climate venture capital fund established by Daria Saharova, Danijel Višević, Craig Douglas, and Tim Schumacher. From energy, food, agriculture, and land use, to building materials, manufacturing and transport, World Fund is investing in European climate tech with a climate performance potential (CPP) of at least 100Mt CO2e emission savings per year. Because we need to decarbonise our economy, startups with such CPP will be among the most valuable companies of the next decade.
Press Contact
Harry Ashcroft: [email protected]
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