Atlantic Quantum, a developer of scalable quantum computers, announced that it has secured $9M (approximately €8.8M) in a Seed round of funding led by The Engine. Thomas Tull, Glasswing Ventures, Future Labs Capital, and E14 also participated in the round. The company has offices in Cambridge, MA, US, and Gothenburg, Sweden.
The company says it will use the funds to accelerate the development of superconducting quantum computers with the quality and size needed to tackle the world’s most complicated computational challenges.
It will also use the funds to expand its team in the US, and Sweden, build lab space in Cambridge, MA, and have signed collaboration agreements with quantum industry leaders.
Atlantic Quantum’s squad
Led by Prof. William D. Oliver and Principal Research Scientist Simon Gustavsson, Atlantic Quantum was founded in the spring of 2022 by a team of scientists and researchers from the MIT Engineering Quantum Systems (EQuS) group.
“I’m thrilled to see several recent and former EQuS researchers join forces to form Atlantic Quantum. This is a “dream team” from my perspective: entrepreneurial, bold, and technically rock-solid, with a demonstrated aptitude for taking technology out of the lab and commercialising it,” says Prof. Oliver. “They are focused on developing the technologies needed to realise the promise of quantum computing.”
The leadership team includes Dr. Bharath Kannan (CEO), Dr. Simon Gustavsson (President and CTO), Dr. Tim Menke (COO), Dr. Youngkyu Sung (CSO), and Prof. Jonas Bylander (Director, European Office), and Shereen Shermak (CBO).
“We believe fault-tolerant quantum hardware is the key to making significant progress in quantum computing,” says co-founder and CEO Bharath Kannan, Ph.D. “While the market is still maturing, overcoming current hardware limitations is critical – we are focused on removing today’s technical obstacles and accelerating real-world applications of quantum computing.”
Atlantic Quantum: What you need to know
According to Boston Consulting, the enterprise quantum computing market could grow to $450-$850B in the next 15-to-30 years.
Various companies are leveraging the opportunity to create disruptive technology for real-world applications, particularly in healthcare, finance, manufacturing, communication, and logistics.
One such company is Atlantic Quantum.
Atlantic Quantum says it uses new types of noise-protected qubits to improve coherence times by order of magnitude compared to conventional approaches. This, together with extensible control schemes, allows for scaling the quantum processor to the size required for real-world applications.
“Unlike the majority of quantum computing companies, Atlantic Quantum is focused on quality first, before size,” says Milo Werner, General Partner at The Engine and newly-appointed board member of Atlantic Quantum. “Until now, the prioritisation of scale over qubit coherence has slowed quantum’s potential. So it’s exciting to see a different path forward that will bring us closer to quantum reality.”
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