European quantum computing startup IQM has raised €128m in funding to help combat the global climate crisis
Led by venture capitalists World Fund, the investment follows a €39m Series A1 completion in 2020 and includes part of a €35m venture loan from the European Investment Bank (EIB), resulting in the largest ever funding round raised by a European quantum computing company.
Along with World Fund, the Series A2 round included new participation from the likes of Bayern Kapital, EIC Fund, OurCrowd and Varma.
Existing investors contributing to the round included OpenOcean, Salvia GmbH, Tencent and Vsquared.
The funding is set to go towards IQM‘s expansion of its international business and acceleration of product development to tackle the world’s most pressing challenges, including climate change.
Additionally, resources are being dedicated towards co-designing quantum computer processors to provide solutions to tackle the climate crisis and promote sustainable development to improve lives around the world.
Since its launch in 2018, IQM been serving as the only European firm to offer full-stack quantum systems, with its on-premise computers being used by research labs and supercomputing centres to address challenging problems in healthcare, finance, logistics and chemistry.
Series A2 funding leader World Fund only invests in technologies with a Climate Performance Potential (CPP) of removing 100 million tonnes of carbon from the atmosphere annually by 2040.
With BCG predicting that quantum technology could create up to $850bn in value globally over the next 15-30 years, McKinsey forecasts that climate technologies developed using quantum could reduce carbon dioxide emissions by seven gigatons a year by 2035.
“This financing round is a significant milestone that recognizes our recent technological milestones and contributes to the acceleration of IQM’s development efforts,” said Dr. Sierk Poetting, chairman of IQM Quantum Computers.
“We value the continued participation of our existing investors and welcome new investors to this powerful syndicate.”
Dr. Jan Goetz, CEO and co-founder of IQM, commented: “This funding underscores the importance of our mission: building quantum computers for the well-being of humankind.
“It also demonstrates the confidence in our business model and the continued trust in our team’s ability to build the future of quantum technologies. I am confident that we will continue to achieve all our product and business milestones and deliver world-class quantum computers to our customers.”
Daria Saharova, founding partner at World Fund, added: “Quantum computing holds the potential to drive the breakthroughs needed to help solve the climate crisis.
“We are proud to lead this round and support IQM’s ambition to deliver quantum advantage to climate and sustainability goals. This investment aligns with our commitment to back only companies with the highest climate performance potential (CPP) so that our portfolio can save two gigatonnes of emissions yearly by 2040 — the equivalent to four percent of all global emissions.
“It gives us immense pleasure to support the amazing IQM team and its founders, who have meticulously and consistently built IQM with a strong on-premises business model focused on high-performance computing centres and national quantum labs. We look forward to being a part of their growth phase towards global leadership.”
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