Google leads $ 230 million Convertible note for starting boston quantum computing quera
Quantum IT, long relegated to the field of theoretical, seems to be back on the agenda as a potentially viable alternative to the expensive breed for a more powerful calculation.
In the tables of certain notable progress in quantum chips and the correction of errors (two of the key areas that have prevented quantum computers from becoming a reality), today a Boston startup called Quera said that she had closed The funding of $ 230 million from Google and SoftBank tastes. The plan is to use money to get it to its next growth stage: building a “useful” computer entirely on the quantum in the next three to five years.
But in particular, funding is not equity. This is a convertible note which, according to the Quera team, will be converted into equity when the company will then increase a turn of equity.
The company, which is currently managed by an acting CEO – the veterinarian of corporate technology Andy Ory – has refused to give a calendar for this next round of action in shares.
To date, Quera has raised just under $ 50 million, including this Round $ 17 million that we covered in 2021. Quera said that the longer list of investors signed to this convertible note is Google (leader), with SoftBank Vision Fund, Valor Equity Partners and existing Quera investors, including the QVT family office, Safar Partners and others that are not named.
As this is a note, no evaluation is provided with this last funding. But Yuval Boger, the COO of Quera, described the evaluation as “a very substantial increase” compared to the previous round of Quera. “I know that you probably have a very good sense of valuation of a high level of $ 230 million,” he added. A conservative and basic assumption is $ 400 million, although it is a note, not equity, so anything can happen.
A detail that gives Quera a notable boost: the company already has income.
More specifically, Ory cited a Sale of $ 41 million in a quantum computer in Japan. will be seated alongside NVIDIA technology (execution of conventional IT) in a new supercomputer project.
The company has also seen income from its cloud services. In November 2022, began to offer a quantum calculation on AWS, through its 256 QUBIT computer (its first generation machine), which said, said Boger, is mainly used for drivers and experiences of proof of concept.
Quera explores expansion to other clouds, but so far has not announced anything. Boger said that Google’s financing – which, according to Quera, is supported by the Quantum AI commercial unit of Google – does not include any Google Cloud platform link.
Quera’s financing is part of what seems to be a significant thrust for quantum computer startups. Less than two weeks ago, Alice & Bob, another quantum computer startup based in Paris, took $ 104 million. Other large rounds have included Cambridge, based on Cambridge EmptyConstruction technology to correct quantum errors, rising $ 75 million; Quantum fleas manufacturer Seeqcwhich raised $ 30 million in January.
Quantum machines In Israel, would also be up $ 100 million. (We contacted quantum machines and he refused to comment on these reports.)
And perhaps the biggest of all, last year, Quantine collected $ 300 million to an evaluation of $ 5 billion. There is now talk From computer science to an evaluation of $ 10 billion.
For the moment, since we have not yet seen a quantum machine entirely available in the trade, a large part of the work among these companies and others are dispersed through a range of approaches, all aimed at means Improve errors and failure rates when calculations are carried out.
The particular objective for Quera – which had 69 employees at the end of 2024 and aims to have 130+ at the end of 2025 – is to build a super computer of quantum of neutral atoms, which is based in part on the Use of lasers to cool atoms in the computer process to reduce errors.
“We believe that we have the right architectural approach to really achieve what we would consider as the Holy Grail, which would be quantum computer which is discontinuous with a real quantum advantage,” said Ory in an interview.
“Take a partner like Google to look at what we do, and the people we have attracted … Everything meets people will allow us to be one of the few companies to really deliver the first evolving and useful quantum computer. »»
But so far, with the multitude of approaches, it is not a race but rather a marathon, without a firm finish line. Alex Keesling, co-founder and former CEO of Quera Who invented technology Who is at the heart of the product, is now in a role to supervise technical implementations while Quera works to build its equipment, and that will, like the others in space, work on flexible deadlines while they are getting closer to ‘Contribution of their ideas to reality.
The longer term promise is enticing. As the calculation becomes more expensive and new technologies like AI exerts ever greater pressure on resources, the industry is looking for solutions that could skip these workloads, or at least complete them, with something more powerful. Believers say that quantum computer science will be the solution.
“We think that if we can reach 100 logical corrected qubits with the possibility of performing a million error -free instructions, there will be useful applications for quantum computers which offers advantages compared to regular computers,” said Ory. “We believe that. We believe that this will create great value for material science, life sciences, simulation, optimization problems, etc.
