- British start-up Oxford Quantum Circuits has raised 38 million pounds ($46.5 million) in new money.
- It aims to commercialize next generation computing using the quantum computing as a service model.
- We got an exclusive look at the 14-slide OQC platform used to lift the first round.
British startup Oxford Quantum Circuits (OQC) has raised £38 million ($46.5 million) as it looks to market the next generation of computing in Europe and Asia through a business-as-a-service model.
OQC wants to become a major player in the emerging field of quantum computing, which aims to take advantage of the laws of quantum mechanics to tackle problems that classical computers struggle to achieve.
Quantum computing promises to revolutionize everything from drug development time in the pharmaceutical industry to helping factor investment managers with massive amounts of data to better inform decision-making when managing their portfolios.
The startup, which launched the UK’s first commercially available quantum computer in 2018, has developed a patented product called Coaxmon, a 3D architecture that makes it easier to scale qubits – the basic units of quantum computing – to make quantum commercially viable.
Its 8-qubit quantum system, named Lucy after German physicist Lucy Mensing, was launched at Amazon Web Services in February, to allow companies to take advantage of quantum computing.
Quantum computing has attracted increasing interest in recent years as the idea has seen a rise in practical applications and led to a fierce battle between incumbents in Silicon Valley as they seek to take the lead in quantum commercialization.
The OQC funding is the start-up’s first-round closeout, and represents the largest increase to date at that point by a quantum computing company. The money will be used to advance the company’s ambitions to offer quantum computing as a service.
The round was co-led by Lansdowne Partners and University of Tokyo Edge Capital Partners, a Japanese deep-tech investor, with additional funds from British Patient Capital and existing investors including Oxford Science Enterprises and Oxford Investment Consultants.
“Quantum computing promises to be the next frontier of innovation, and OQC, with state-of-the-art Coaxmon technology, aims to integrate the cutting edge of modern physics into our everyday lives,” said Lenny Chin, Director of UTEC.
The startup is also looking to press ahead with its international expansion plans as it looks to opportunities in the Asia Pacific region as well as Japan, where there are several financial centers that it says are “keen to realize the benefits of quantum computing.”
Check out the 14 slide deck below:
