Another quantum unicorn! Xanadu completes a new round of financing of 100 million US dollars
On May 20, Canada's The Globe and Mail reported[1] that Georgian Partners, Canada's largest growth equity investment firm, has agreed to lead a $100 million financing to Toronto-based quantum computing startup Xanadu. It will bring the quantum computer developer's valuation to $1 billion and enter the ranks of unicorn companies.
The financing, which was confirmed by three sources familiar with the deal, comes a year after Xanadu secured a $100 million round led by U.S. venture capital giant Bessemer Venture Partners, which was also led by Canadian billionaire Jeff Skoll. Backed by Capricorn Investment Group, US investment giant Tiger Global and early investors including Toronto-based Georgian, OMERS Ventures, US venture capitalist Tim Draper, BDC Capital and In-Q-Tel, the venture arm of the CIA.
The financing has not yet been finalized, but investors have committed to provide most of the money Xanadu seeks on terms set by Georgian, the sources said. Once this round of financing is completed, Xanadu's valuation will be 2.5 times its book valuation a year ago.
Xanadu CEO Christian Weedbrook and Georgian declined to comment by press time.
Xanadu is one of the start-up companies in a global race to develop the world's most powerful computer, harnessing the power of subatomic particles to perform calculations that would require current supercomputers to run for thousands of years. Industry insiders believe that quantum computers will eventually provide powerful new methods for drug discovery, materials science, financial risk modeling and other applications.
Interest in quantum computers has been heating up, and many competitors, including D-Wave and IBM, are developing machines containing quantum chips that must be cooled to temperatures colder than deep space to function. Xanadu and others bring new approaches.
For example, Xanadu and another company, PsiQuantum, are trying to harvest computing power from light. Xanadu uses a process called "squeezed light" by firing lasers that cause photons to create quantum effects on tiny chips.
Xanadu Programmable Photonic Chip
Xanadu's method, which operates at room temperature, is based on company founder Weedbrook's doctoral thesis at the University of Queensland in Australia. The only part that needs cooling at the moment is the single-photon detector, and with further development, he said, the cryogenic temperature could be completely eliminated, "a job that requires careful design."
Without refrigeration, Weedbrook said, Xanadu could develop machines faster and cheaper than other companies and eventually shrink its chips enough to fit in small devices. By contrast, D-Wave's quantum computer comes in a box the size of a shed.
Currently, Xanadu already provides online access to its early machines for a small number of customers and has created open-source software tools for quantum computers for developers. In addition, it designs and sells quantum computing hardware for universities, government labs and enterprise customers. In 2021, Weedbrook estimated that the company was five years away from reaching significant commercial scale.
Recently, Xanadu also launched a Python library for simulating quantum error correction codes - FlamingPy [2]. FlamingPy software includes a variety of built-in error correction codes, decoders and noise models, and also allows users to add their own models. The software enables users to simulate and debug error correction performance and provides estimates of fault tolerance error thresholds. The software provides various visualization tools to help users verify the correctness of their implementations.
Reference link:
[1]https://www.theglobeandmail.com/business/article-toronto-startup-xanadu-quantum-tech-financing/
