Quantum Startup Investors With ‘Here-and-Now’ Applications
The Colorado firm plans to use $110 million in investor funding to build high-precision atomic clocksand other products ColdQuanta's quantum computer, which is targeting 1,000 qubits by 2024.PHOTO: COURTESY OF COLDQUANTA
ColdQuanta, a quantum-computing startup based in Boulder, Colo., raised $110 million in aSeries B round, drawing investors in a tight market with near-term plans to harness and sell the2/9/23, 9:38 AM Quantum Startup ColdQuanta Draws Investors With ‘Here-and-Now’ Applications https://www.wsj.com/articles/quantum-startup-coldquanta-draws-investors-with-here-and-now-applications-11667304003 2/4
Present-day capabilities of a technology whose full potential is still years away.
The funding round was led by LCP Quantum Partners, with participation by In-Q-Tel, Sumitomo Corp. of Americas, the Breakthrough Victoria Fund, Foundry Group, Global FrontierInvestments and Maverick Ventures, the company said Tuesday.
As part of the funding round, Christopher Galvin, former chairman and chief executive of Motorola, joins ColdQuanta’s board of directors, the company said.
Launched in 2007, ColdQuanta, which raised $20 million in a round last year, will use the new capital to accelerate efforts to develop revenue-generating hardware and software systems that leverage quantum technology in areas like atomic clocks, sensors and higher-precision radio frequencies and GPS networks, said Scott Faris, ColdQuanta’s chief executive.
Mr. Faris said the company is already generating revenue from sales of software and components to financial-services firms, research labs, defense companies and other quantum-computer developers. The company this year was awarded a subcontract to develop portable atomic clocks for the U.S. Office of Naval Research, among other customers.
It has also secured grants and additional funding from public-sector research-and-development initiatives in the U.S., Australia, Japan and other national efforts.
ColdQuanta CEO Scott Faris.PHOTO: COURTESY OF COLDQUANTA
Quantum computing has become a tech buzzword in recent years amid outsize spending on the development of quantum-powered supercomputers by tech giants like International BusinessMachines Corp. and Alphabet Inc.’s Google.
Unlike conventional computers—which run on digital ones and zeros—quantum computers runon quantum bits, or qubits, encoded into subatomic and atomic particles, including electrons,2/9/23, 9:38 AM Quantum Startup ColdQuanta Draws Investors With ‘Here-and-Now’ Applications https://www.wsj.com/articles/quantum-startup-coldquanta-draws-investors-with-here-and-now-applications-11667304003 3/4
Photons and ions. These can exist as both a zero and a one, making them significantly more efficient at handling complex calculations, such as increasingly sophisticated AI algorithms.
Boston Consulting Group has forecast that quantum computing has the potential to generate as much as $850 billion in market value within the next 30 years. Until then, researchers, scientists and engineers are working to increase the capacity of quantum systems to produce qubits, which is currently in the range of hundreds of qubits. Most of the potential vaunted benefits of quantum computers—from discovering a cure for cancer to exploring the farthest reaches of the universe—will require millions of qubits, scientists say.
ColdQuanta’s systems fire lasers at atoms, which are then cooled and rearranged for given tasks, such as improving smartphone reception, removing a split-second time-lapse between GPS devices and satellites, or vastly increasing the power of solar panels or the lifespan of an anelectric-vehicle battery, Mr. Faris said.
“These are the most real-world, here-and-now applications for quantum,” said Grant Dollens, founder of ColdQuanta investor Global Frontier Investments. In the quantum market, he said, everyone talks about computer power. “I’m a big fan of computing, but on a time scale that’s investible, it’s these applications I’m interested in.”
Within the next three years, nearly 40% of large companies are expected to create quantum-computing initiatives, according to information-technology research and consulting firm Gartner Inc.
Bucking a broad downturn in venture investing, quantum-computing startups worldwide are projected to raise a total of roughly $1 billion across some 50 funding deals, which would make 2022 a record year for both funding dollars and deal counts, according to market research firm CB Insights.
“The big underlying driver is that quantum computing promises to be a disruptive force across numerous industries,” CB Insights said in a research note. “The technology is still nascent, but it could soon play a role in everything from helping tackle climate change to speeding up drug discovery to allowing investment banks to make better trades,” the firm said.
Other startups driving the commercialization of quantum include Nvision, an Ulm, Germany-based firm that leverages quantum technology to improve MRI scanners and that raised an additional $17 million in funding in October.
Sandbox AQ, a quantum AI startup spun out of Google, in March announced an undisclosed“nine-figure” funding round that included Breyer Capital, T. Rowe Price Associates Inc. and Guggenheim Partners LLC.2/9/23, 9:38 AM
Quantum Startup ColdQuanta Draws Investors With ‘Here-and-Now’ Applications https://www.wsj.com/articles/quantum-startup-coldquanta-draws-investors-with-here-and-now-applications-11667304003 4/4
