Insider Brief
- Firgun Ventures announced a $70 million first close to launch what it calls the market’s first VC fund focused on early growth-stage quantum technology companies, backed by the Qatar Investment Authority.
- The fund, targeting $250 million, will invest globally in quantum computing, sensing, communications, and related applications in sectors such as healthcare, climate science, finance, and cybersecurity.
- Founded by Kris Naudts and Zeynep Koruturk, the firm combines scientific, entrepreneurial, and financial expertise supported by an advisory council from leading institutions including Cambridge, Oxford, MIT, Google, the European Investment Bank, and the Wellcome Trust.
Firgun Ventures today announced its first close at $70 million, with its official launch as the market’s first venture capital firm specialising in early growth-stage (Series A and B) quantum technology investments. With a target fund size of $250 million and an anchor investment from the Qatar Investment Authority, Firgun aims to help exceptional quantum entrepreneurs scale their companies and transform industries across the globe. The management team is based in London and will invest globally.
Founded by Dr Kris Naudts, former award-winning, academic psychiatrist-neuroscientist at King’s College London and founder of the multi-award-winning travel platform Culture Trip, together with Zeynep Koruturk, former Executive at Goldman-Sachs and Co-Founder of GS’s Tech Initiative. Both have been angel investing in quantum technology start-ups from as early as 2016. Firgun unites deep scientific, entrepreneurial, and financial expertise, which is further enhanced by Mete Atature, Professor of Physics and Head of Cambridge University’s Cavendish Lab, and advising Firgun with technical due diligence for possible portfolio companies.
With quantum technology moving from theory to real-world impact, Firgun Ventures will support entrepreneurs scaling companies focused on quantum computing, quantum sensing and quantum communications or cryptography, and with a longer-term view of developing solutions in healthcare, climate science, finance, cybersecurity and such like. The firm will draw on a significant anchor investment from the Qatar Investment Authority, early backing by a number of family offices and by Ilyas Khan, founder of Cambridge Quantum Computing (now Quantinuum) – currently the world’s most valuable private quantum company, in which Firgun’s co-founders have been investors since 2016. Built on scientific expertise and commercial acumen, Firgun brings together an advisory council of leading minds from Cambridge and Oxford Universities, MIT, Google, the European Investment Bank and the Wellcome Trust. Together, they will provide quantum-specific due diligence and guidance for scaling companies in this frontier technology.
“Quantum isn’t a buzzword. It’s an industrial revolution. It will reshape how we compute, communicate, and diagnose or cure disease. We’re here to fund its future leading companies,” said Dr Kris Naudts, co-founder of Firgun Ventures. “Our investor ethos begins with ‘First, do no harm,’ borrowed from the medical world, but used here to mean that we are focussed on helping founders and management teams maintain innovation and drive sustainable and organised growth. Quantum technology is here to change the world, and we strongly believe in its ability to do so for the better.”
“We back quantum founders who have already crossed from lab to market, and they need investors who understand both worlds in order to successfully scale,” added Zeynep Koruturk, Co-Founder. “After more than a decade working with technology entrepreneurs at Goldman Sachs, I’ve seen how transformative innovation takes hold when it’s backed by the right kind of capital. Quantum is no different – it needs investors who combine conviction with values. That’s exactly what Firgun was built to deliver.”
