Insider Brief
- Q-CTRL announced its Series B-1 fundraise of $27.4 million USD.
- This Series B extension brings Q-CTRL’s total Series B raise to over $52 million.
- New investors include Salesforce Ventures, Alumni Ventures, ICM Allectus, Mindrock Capital, former General Dynamics partner Bill Lightfoot and John Eales.
PRESS RELEASE — Q-CTRL, a global leader in developing useful quantum technologies through quantum infrastructure software, today announced its Series B-1 fundraise of $27.4 million USD, with participation from Salesforce Ventures. This Series B extension brings Q-CTRL’s total Series B raise to over $52 million USD, the largest among quantum software companies, according to Pitchbook data.
Q-CTRL plans to use the funding to double down on its globally leading technology and product engineering and invest in sales and marketing capacity. The company anticipates growing its team from 80 to approximately 120 in 2023 across offices in Sydney, Los Angeles and Berlin.
Q-CTRL has over 8,000 users across its product portfolio and achieved over $15 million in bookings between its quantum computing and quantum sensing divisions in 2022. With some of the most robust revenue in the industry and a track record of exceptional capital efficiency, this funding round will further expand Q-CTRL’s healthy cash reserves as the team eyes new strategic initiatives.
In addition to Salesforce Ventures, new investors include Alumni Ventures, ICM Allectus, Mindrock Capital, former General Dynamics partner Bill Lightfoot, and global rugby legend and Australian business leader John Eales. Continuing investors include Airbus Ventures, Data Collective, Horizons, Main Sequence Ventures, and Ridgeline Partners.
“Q-CTRL’s technology stands head-and-shoulders above the rest of the industry in tackling the most foundational challenge in quantum computing,” said Robert Keith, Managing Director, Salesforce Ventures. “Q-CTRL’s products are essential for enterprise adoption of quantum computing, and their use of AI is delivering critical insights across hardware platforms that no one else can match. With their additional leadership in pioneering quantum sensors, we came to see Q-CTRL as one of the most consequential businesses in the sector for their ability to deliver value through quantum technology.”
Q-CTRL is a category-defining business in quantum infrastructure software, focused on making quantum computers useful, sooner, for Enterprise customers. The company’s combined emphasis on expanding performance and utility without the need to invest heavily in understanding new, complex software was recognized by IDC in a recent analysis.
“Hiring teams of specialists can be risky and expensive. Q-CTRL’s frictionless quantum infrastructure software has a shallow learning curve and allows CIOs and CTOs to become quantum ready today reducing enterprise risk,” said Heather West, IDC Research Manager. “Q-CTRL anticipates that with its software, enterprises will be able to leverage the skills of their current IT developers to easily develop, optimize, and execute quantum algorithms, and obtain high levels of performance on any given hardware at a low net cost.”
Capgemini worked directly with Q-CTRL and discovered how quantum infrastructure software could open new opportunities that were previously impossible. “In the years ahead, as we move closer to quantum advantage, [Q-CTRL’s products] will enable real applications to deliver value sooner,” said Julian van Velzen, CTIO & Head of Capgemini’s Quantum Lab.
“Our technical and product achievements are exceptional, and it’s thrilling to see such broad adoption of our products from some of the largest and most important technical and enterprise customers,” said Q-CTRL CEO and Founder Michael J. Biercuk. “With the world’s largest team of experts in quantum control and error suppression, we’ve established ourselves as the leading provider of some of the most important technology in this sector. Today’s additional validation from the investor community – especially while capital raises have been difficult to assemble – is a huge boost for our mission and ambition to truly make quantum technology useful.”
Major consultancies McKinsey and the Boston Consulting Group have identified outsized impacts from Enterprise adoption of quantum computing and sensing, with estimates approaching $850 billion USD in projected value creation. This is driving major investor activity in quantum technology; McKinsey cites over $3 billion USD in venture capital investment into quantum computing as of June 2022, and has identified that quantum technology is the second largest sector for tech investment into Australia.
To learn more about Q-CTRL, please visit: q-ctrl.com.
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