Qutwo, a Helsinki-based AI and quantum software startup, has secured €25 million ($29.4 million USD) in an angel funding round, reaching a valuation of €325 million ($382.2 million). Founded by Peter Sarlin, formerly the CEO of Silo AI (acquired by AMD for $665 million in 2024), the company operates as an “AI lab for the quantum era.” The investment features a group of high-profile backers, including Yuri Milner, Xavier Niel, Niklas Zennström, and the founders of category-defining European companies such as Hugging Face, Supercell, and Wolt.
Orchestrating the Next Paradigm: Qutwo OS
The company’s core product, Qutwo OS, is an orchestration layer designed to manage AI workloads across classical, quantum-inspired, and emerging quantum hardware. Rather than focusing solely on future quantum processors, Qutwo emphasizes “quantum-inspired” computing, which utilizes classical high-performance chips (including NVIDIA, AMD, and Google TPUs) to simulate quantum behaviors for complex optimization and modeling tasks. This approach allows enterprises to achieve performance gains on reliable hardware today while preparing their R&D pipelines for the eventual arrival of utility-scale quantum machines.
Commercial Traction and Industry Partnerships
Within two months of its February 2026 launch, Qutwo secured over €20 million in contracted revenue through strategic design partnerships. Notable collaborations include:
- Zalando: Development of “lifestyle agents” and advanced AI assistants for retail.
- OP Pohjola: Implementation of financial modeling and risk management tools for the banking sector.
- Open-Source Innovation: The company is developing Miles, an open-source tool for large-scale reinforcement learning, intended to enhance model performance after initial training.
Interdisciplinary Leadership and Scientific Depth
Qutwo’s team of over 50 scientists and engineers combines expertise from both the AI and quantum hardware sectors. The founding team includes Kaj-Mikael Björk (Silo AI co-founder) and Kuan Yen Tan (co-founder of IQM Quantum Computers). The company’s board of directors includes Pekka Lundmark, the former CEO of Nokia, reflecting the startup’s focus on building sovereign European technology. The technical staff is drawn from institutions such as UC Berkeley, Cambridge, and Microsoft Research, bridging the gap between cutting-edge physics and industrial-grade software engineering.
You can find the official funding announcement from Qutwo here and the technical profile on Peter Sarlin’s strategic vision for European sovereign tech here.
May 7, 2026
Leave A Comment