Quantum computing software pioneer 1QBit spins off quantum simulation division and gets investment from Accenture
Founded in 2012, 1QBit is the world's first dedicated quantum computing software company. On April 5, the company announced the independence of its quantum simulation division into a company called Good Chemistry.
Good Chemistry has raised seed rounds led by Green Sands Equity, Accenture and WorldQuant Ventures. By providing developers with the power of computation and quantum chemistry, the company will fundamentally change the way new materials are discovered and designed in numerous industries, including chemistry, pharmaceuticals, oil and gas, automotive and academic research.
Good Chemistry also joined Accenture Ventures' Project Spotlight, an engagement and investment program that connects emerging technology software startups with the Global 2000 to fill strategic innovation gaps.
Carl Dukatz, Accenture's Global Quantum Computing Leader, said: "By solidifying our relationship with 1QBit and extending it to the newly established Good Chemistry, we demonstrate our continued commitment to accelerating innovation in quantum computing. We are witnessing a new kind of quantum computing innovation. The advent of extended cloud-based technologies that are pushing the boundaries of what computers can solve. We recognize the potential to advance our customers with next-generation chemistry, materials science and structural design.”
As early as June 2017, the pharmaceutical giant Biogen announced a partnership with Accenture and 1QBit to bring quantum computing to multiple sclerosis, Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, and Lu Gehrig's diseases. The treatment of the disease is in development.
Through active research, development, and industry collaborations over the past three years, Good Chemistry has partnered with heavyweights including Dow, Amazon Web Services (AWS), DIC Corporation, and Microsoft, thanks in large part to its expertise in computing Proprietary advances in chemistry and simulation, which enable it to move from the physical lab to the digital world, dramatically reduce time-to-market, development costs and the amount of infrastructure previously required.
Leading the Good Chemistry team is CEO and founder Arman Zaribafiyan, 1QBit’s first employee and founder of the Quantum Simulation Division, with a PhD in Quantum Information from the University of British Columbia.
Arman Zaribafiyan
CEO Zaribafiyan said: "We have integrated some of the most critical technological advancements of the past decade, such as cloud, artificial intelligence and emerging quantum computers, into our platform QEMIST Cloud. Our cloud-based developer platform has been able to Perform unprecedented large-scale simulations on the cloud with very high precision."
The advantages of Good Chemistry include three points: it uses a variety of technology paradigms; it incorporates a broad developer community into its product development, especially the developer community at the intersection of quantum chemistry, software and machine learning; An interdisciplinary team of chemists, machine learning scientists and quantum computing scientists.
Good Chemistry's Scientific Advisory Board consists of some of the industry's top minds:
Paul Zimmerman, professor of chemistry at the University of Michigan, and developer of the iFCI method, one of the core solvers of QEMIST Cloud, Good Chemistry's cloud-based computational chemistry platform.
Frank Noe, professor at the Free University of Berlin, Germany, is known for his pioneering work in applying machine learning to the physical sciences, including chemistry and biophysics. He has made many contributions in the field, including his recent work using machine learning for high-precision quantum chemical calculations.
Isaac Kim, assistant professor of computer science at UC Davis. Isaac studies entanglement structures in quantum many-body systems that allow such systems to be efficiently simulated on classical and near-term quantum computers.
The team's years of intensive collaboration with Dow Chemical has resulted in many scientific breakthroughs in simulating material properties with high precision on quantum computers, putting both companies at the forefront of the materials design industry.
David Parrillo, VP of Core R&D at Dow, said: "Dow Chemical and 1QBit's Quantum Simulation Division (now Good Chemistry) have enjoyed a strong partnership for many years. This partnership puts us in the process of utilizing quantum computing for materials discovery. Significant progress has been made and several journal articles have been published exploring the boundaries of quantum computing in materials discovery research."
Industry users such as Dow Chemical and DIC Corporation are already using the beta version of Good Chemistry's quantum computing software development kit, as well as the cloud-native development platform QEMIST Cloud.
Toshiro Ariga, Executive Officer and General Manager of DIC's R&D Management Division, said: "We are delighted to officially announce our collaboration on the occasion of the establishment of Good Chemistry. For chemical manufacturers, building sustainable and clean A material development approach is inevitable, as the application of quantum technology for high-precision and high-throughput computing is one of its main solutions. We believe this collaboration will accelerate our new material development."
The company opens access to new test users starting in March 2022. "Our preliminary studies have shown very promising results," said Dr. Takeshi Yamazaki, Director of R&D at Good Chemistry. "We are excited to see what external researchers and developers can do with our platform, now that we have launched Beta." Researchers, developers and organizations wishing to become beta users can now register via the link below:
www.goodchemistry.com
QEMIST Cloud will be available to the wider public later in 2022.
Link:
[1] https://goodchemistry.com/good-chemistry-company-secures-seed-funding/
[2] https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220405005275/en
