17 January 2024
DELFT, NETHERLANDS: Dutch quantum computing company QphoX has raised an €8 million funding round, the largest investment in a quantum company in the Netherlands to date, in a significant development for the country’s fast-growing quantum industry.
The round was led by QDNL Participations. The EIC Fund, and existing investors Quantonation, Speedinvest, High-Tech Gründerfonds, and Delft Enterprises also participated. The significant investment from the EIC Fund follows the grant from the EIC Accelerator to drive the development of QphoX’s disruptive technology.
QphoX is developing the core hardware required to allow quantum computers to communicate over an optical network. This will enable the scalability of large quantum computing systems within a data center, and ultimately form the backbone of the future quantum internet.
Since raising €2 million in 2021, QphoX has made significant advances in its technology, including recent developments that bring mature quantum computers within reach. The new funds will be used to accelerate product development and prepare QphoX’s technology for integration into commercial systems as it continues its first pilot projects with customers and partners.
QphoX’s core technology centers on the ability to build devices that enable quantum transduction, where (quantum) information can be translated between the microwave and optical domains.
The company has made a number of breakthroughs in its technology recently. In October 2023, QphoX shared its demonstration of optical-frequency readout of superconducting qubits and published peer-reviewed details of its world-leading transducer performance in Nature Nanotechnology, establishing the company as a leader in the emerging field of quantum transduction.
“We are very grateful to be entrusted by our investors to build the technology that will enable real quantum computing applications. At the moment, we are the only company with the transduction hardware at a performance level that will allow quantum systems to connect through optical quantum channels. We look forward to working with our partners to scale quantum computers beyond proof-of-concept systems,” explains QphoX co-founder and CEO Simon Groeblacher.
Chad Rigetti, Venture Partner at lead investor QDNL Participations, who will also join the company’s advisory board, said: “Quantum transduction, and the ability to interconnect modular quantum computers over an optical network, is a breakthrough capability that could shift how we think of building large scale quantum computers and the quantum internet. QphoX is the clear leader in this category. We’re thrilled to back them in their mission to build a leading global quantum hardware company.”
Christophe Jurczak, partner at Quantonation, said: “The team at QphoX has demonstrated great skills at taking outstanding science out of the lab and turning it into practical innovation that will benefit a large part of the nascent quantum industry. In return their work has also generated high quality peer-reviewed science and at Quantonation we are very supportive of such a virtuous circle. We’re very happy to continuing supporting the QphoX team and the blooming Dutch quantum ecosystem, and contribute once again making the European Quantum industry a global leader”
Marcin Nowak, Investment Director at European Investment Bank, leading the investment on behalf of the EIC Fund, said: “We are very impressed by the quality of QphoX’s team and its unique quantum transduction technology, successfully taken out of the lab. We strongly believe that QphoX’s technology will form the backbone and pave the way towards a future quantum internet and accelerate scaling up of quantum computers. The significant investment in QphoX is a demonstration of the EIC Fund’s commitment to support innovation in the field of quantum computing and bridge the funding gap in capital intensive, high-risk, early-stage, deep tech industry.”
