Q-CTRL, a company developing quantum infrastructure software, received $27.4 million in B-1 funding bringing the total raised to date to $52 million. The company asserts that this is the largest fund raise of any quantum software company. Investors participating in this round include Salesforce Ventures, Alumni Ventures, ICM Allectus, Mindrock Capital, former General Dynamics Vice President Bill Lightfoot, global rugby legend John Eales and continuing investors Airbus Ventures, Data Collective, Horizons, Main Sequence Ventures, and Ridgeline Partners. This is the first quantum investment for Salesforce Ventures, although a personal venture firm backed by Mark Benioff, CEO of Salesforce, has also made an investment in SandboxAQ.
The company will be using the funds to invest in R&D and also Sales & Marketing capabilities. The company’s headquarters is in Sydney, Australia with additional offices in Los Angeles, California and Berlin, Germany. The company conducts research, engineering, and product development across all three locations. They currently employ 80 people and expect to expand that to 120 in the coming year. The company started by providing qubit control software for quantum processors with several different products that can be used by both researchers and end users. More recently they have added additional products in the quantum sensing and quantum education areas. The company indicates it booked over $15 million in 2022 and has 8,000 users across its product portfolio. However, it is likely the vast majority of those 8,000 users are working with Q-CTRL’s Black Opal education product, which is a low cost item.
Additional information about this funding round can be seen in a press release that can be accessed here as well as a recent podcast conducted with Michael Biercuk, CEO and Founder of Q-CTRL that we have posted on the Quantum Computing Report here.
January 31, 2023