- British startup Oxford Quantum Circuits has raised £38 million ($46.5 million) in new funds.
- It aims to commercialize next-generation computing with a quantum computing-as-a-service model.
- We got an exclusive look at the 14-slide pitch deck that OQC used to raise the Series A round.
British startup Oxford Quantum Circuits (OQC) has raised £38 million ($46.5 million) to commercialize next-generation computers in Europe and Asia through an as-a-service business model.
OQC aims to become a major player in the emerging field of quantum computing, which seeks to take advantage of the laws of quantum mechanics to address problems that would be difficult for traditional computers to solve.
Quantum computing promises to revolutionize everything from the time for drug development in the pharmaceutical industry to helping investment managers in the financial sector process large amounts of data to better inform decision-making in managing their investments. wallets.
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. .
The 8-qubit quantum system, named Lucy after German physicist Lucy Mensing, was launched in February on Amazon Web Services’ Amazon Braket, allowing businesses to take advantage of quantum computing.
Quantum computing has attracted increasing attention in recent years as the idea has seen an increase in practical applications and has sparked a fierce battle among Silicon Valley’s incumbents, who want to lead the way in quantum commercialization.
The funding from OQC is the first close in the startup’s Series A round and marks the largest raise to date by a quantum computing company. The funds will be used to further the company’s ambitions for a quantum computing-as-a-service offering.
The round was co-led by Lansdowne Partners and the 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 its state-of-the-art Coaxmon technology, aims to integrate the forefront of modern physics into our daily lives,” said Lenny Chin, director at UTEC.
The startup is also looking to move forward with international expansion plans as it sees opportunities in the Asia-Pacific region and in Japan, where there are several financial hubs that it says are “eager to realize the benefits of quantum computing.”
View the pitch deck with 14 slides below: