Insider Brief
- Kipu Quantum announced it has raised seed round funding totaling 10.5 million EUR.
- The German quantum software company develops compressed algorithms needed for operating high-performing quantum computers.
- The round was led by HV Capital and DTCF.
PRESS RELEASE — Kipu Quantum, a German quantum software company, today announced it has raised seed round funding totaling 10.5 million EUR. The start-up based in Karlsruhe and Berlin develops compressed algorithms needed for operating high-performing quantum computers. These algorithms enable customers from the pharmaceutical, chemical, logistics, and financial industries to run highly complex processes on existing quantum hardware, which will radically shorten the time to market for quantum computers. The successes of the team, assembled by founders Enrique Solano, Tobias Grab, and Daniel Volz, are the result of more than two decades of dedicated research, scientific expertise, and unique industry experience.
The financing round was led by HV Capital and DTCF, with strong participation from all existing shareholders: Entrada Ventures, Quantonation, and First Moment Ventures. In addition, Onsight Ventures and QAI Ventures joined the round. Kipu Quantum will use the funding to continue building its team of the world’s leading quantum scientists, researchers and engineers, with the goal of reducing the time to industrially-useful quantum computers by several years.
Quantum computers have the power to change the world through their potential to solve intractable computational tasks. Yet, the quantum processors needed to tackle problems of industrially relevant sizes need to improve by orders of magnitude to reach general usefulness. “Kipu’s massively compressed algorithms allow the use of today’s quantum processors across multiple industries without waiting for larger quantum computers. We develop algorithms tailored towards specific, contemporary hardware, as well as the given specs of an application,” explains Enrique Solano, founder of Kipu Quantum and the scientific lead of a team of 16 quantum computing PhDs.
With this approach, the Kipu Quantum team set a new performance world record for protein folding, beating the previous record by IBM who, along with Pasqal and QuEra, is one of Kipu Quantum’s hardware partners. “Our team has spent almost 25 years of research to accelerate the timeline towards solving real-world business problems with quantum computing and achieving drastic improvements over competing algorithms in areas like the simulation of chemical and biological processes, mechanical systems, or complex optimization problems,” says Daniel Volz, founder and CEO of Kipu Quantum, who previously built up global activities in the field of quantum computing in various industries at McKinsey & Company. “We have built a strong team and brought our leading tech to major commercial customers like BASF.”
Hermann Hauser, renowned entrepreneur and venture capitalist as well as co-founder of Acorn Computers, and thus pioneer in the development of the ARM microprocessor, joined via Onsight Ventures as a new investor. He shares, “I am excited about the innovative technology and the talented team behind Kipu Quantum, and I am very happy to be part of this exciting journey and to accompany them on their way.”
Maxi Pethö-Schramm of HV Capital says, “The founding trio of Kipu Quantum combines world- leading research, a deep understanding of customer problems, and experience in the commercialization of future technologies. This enables Kipu Quantum to create a quantum software product with new business value.”
“We are investing in the transformative potential of quantum computing technology to advance areas where traditional computing is reaching its limits. Kipu Quantum’s approach is in line with our vision of a future where quantum computing accelerates breakthroughs in areas such as drug discovery,” comments Tobias Faupel, co-Managing Director of the DeepTech & Climate Fonds.
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