Sydney quantum company Q-CTRL has raised US$290 million (A$415 million) in a Series C round led by Salesforce Ventures, the company announced on 12 November. Q-CTRL says the round makes it the quantum sector’s newest unicorn. It hasn’t disclosed an exact valuation.
Who’s in
Bullhound Capital and Affinity Partners were major participants. New investors include AMD Ventures, EDGE Group, MPower Partners, SPARX Asset Management and Australia’s National Reconstruction Fund Corporation. Returning backers include Square Peg, Main Sequence, DCVC, In-Q-Tel and Lockheed Martin Ventures.
Q-CTRL says the round was expanded twice to meet demand and calls it the largest quantum fundraise for a software-focused business.
What it does
Founded in 2017 by Professor Michael Biercuk, Q-CTRL makes software that uses AI to control quantum hardware, which is notoriously sensitive to noise. Its products cover two areas:
| Area | What Q-CTRL says it offers |
|---|---|
| Quantum computing | Software that gets more useful results from machines such as IBM’s |
| Quantum sensing | Ironstone Opal, a navigation system that works when GPS is jammed or unavailable |
The company says Ironstone Opal is being deployed on commercial aircraft with Airbus and on autonomous platforms with Lockheed Martin. Its performance claims, including that it is 100 times better than the best alternative, are the company’s own.
What’s next
Q-CTRL says it will use the money to scale its software and expand quantum navigation deployments globally. It operates from Sydney, with offices in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Huntsville, Berlin and Oxford.
