Finnish quantum computer startup IQM Finland has raised €11.6 million in a Seed Round involving five investors. The funding round is the company’s first financing, and will help accelerate advancements in its quantum computing hardware. The investment comes from Matadero QED, Maki.vc, MIG Fonds, OpenOcean, Tesi (Finnish Industry Investment), and Vito Ventures.
IQM’s High-Speed Processors
IQM Finland is building scalable hardware for universal quantum computers, focusing on superconducting technology. The startup is developing high-speed quantum processors to reduce the error rates that currently inhibit quantum computers.
Founded in 2018, the startup is a spinout firm from Aalto University and VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland (VTT), both of which were natural incubators for IQM. Both are renowned for their research in superconducting circuits, and more recently, quantum technology. Superconducting circuits power the quantum bits (qubits) that hold and process quantum information. Qubits represent the building blocks of a quantum computer.
IQM delivers hardware systems that stand up to the challenges facing quantum computing. In order to accelerate the adoption of quantum computing, one must continue to increase computational speeds and improve error correction. This therefore requires faster technology to reduce the time required for qubit reset and readout. To do this, hardware systems must be finely set to maintain the stability of the qubits, whilst remaining robust and cost effective.
Quantum Computing – A Growing Industry
IQM plans to use the fresh capital to advance its hardware innovations, including more efficient quantum processors. Moreover, the startup wants to bring a practically useful quantum computer closer to reality.
Quantum computing is growing rapidly and, with IQM at the forefront of the industry, experts predict that quantum computing will revolutionise several other sectors, such as drug discovery, materials science and finance. The end goal for IQM is to create value based on the power of quantum technologies.
Dr. Kuan Tan, Co-founder and CTO of IQM, said: “We’re excited to advance our efforts to demonstrate the fastest qubit reset and readout in the industry. We’re confident this will bring the industry closer to a viable quantum computing solution.”