$90 million! Silicon-based quantum computing financing record high

Today, Australia’s Silicon Quantum Computing (SQC) announced the launch of an A$130 million (approximately US$90 million) Series A financing to fund the company’s technology development, operational and strategic activities from 2023 to 2028.

If completed, it will set a record for a single financing for a silicon-based quantum computing company.

Up to now, for the ion trap system, IonQ has raised US$650 million through SPAC listing; for the superconducting system, Rigetti has raised US$260 million in the same way; for the optical system, PsiQuantum has a single highest financing of US$450 million; D-Wave, a quantum annealing machine company, expects It will raise $340 million through a SPAC. For silicon-based systems, financing is relatively small.

SQC was founded in 2017 by Michelle Simmons, Professor of Quantum Physical Sciences at the University of New South Wales, which at the time received funding from the Australian Federal Government, the NSW State Government, Telstra, the Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) and UNSW 8300 $10,000 in seed funding support. On July 1 this year, Simmons will officially serve as CEO of SQC.

Professor Michelle Simmons

In addition to its existing backers, SQC will be scouring the global investment market for venture capital and institutional investors, and the firm has hired Sydney-based corporate advisory firm Blackpeak Capital to assist in its financing efforts.

Professor Simmons said: "Overall, I think the quantum computing market is very hot and active right now, so from a quantum perspective, it's a good time. As a company, we've achieved some amazing results and we're going to Announcement soon, and [the financing] is part of our milestone, so it's a good time for us to move forward."

SQC plans to build a broadly useful quantum computer by the 2030s, and key milestones in the process include demonstrating the capabilities needed to reliably produce a 10-qubit prototype quantum integrated processor by 2023, and delivering a 10-qubit prototype quantum integrated processor by 2030. A programmable device implementing error correction for a 100-qubit quantum processor.

SQC Roadmap

Quantum computers will prove to be far more powerful than classical computers in conducting complex calculations and decisions, and corporate backers of SQC are not only for potentially lucrative future financial returns, but also for learning and influencing development.

Simmons said the SQC was in discussions with existing backers about follow-on investments. The Australian federal government is also likely to double down on its support for the company by making quantum computing a nationally important target area through its forthcoming $1 billion Critical Technologies Fund.

She said: "People who have worked with us for a while are very interested in this technology. It's a technology that is strategic to the country and that's obviously why the government is investing in the first place, and it's going to be there for a long time. Staying strategic. The key thing that excites us is that we've achieved these milestones, we've reached these goals, and some of them are even ahead of schedule."

While Professor Simmons has not been able to discuss details publicly, she believes the upcoming "major milestone" will generate excitement among investors and repercussions in Australian manufacturing.

UNSW and the Australian Federal Government were the largest investors in the 2017 seed round, investing A$25 million each. CBA invested $14 million, Telstra $10 million and the NSW government $8.7 million.

CBA chief information officer Brendan Hopper said the bank, as a shareholder and potential customer of the company, was keen to keep working with SQC. “CBA believes that SQC combines a world-leading vision with a relentless focus on engineering quality that makes it the future world leader in quantum computing. The existing global semiconductor industry is based on silicon technology, which we believe gives SQC has a huge competitive advantage and we are starting to work with SQC on our first financial use cases."

Telstra's head of product and technology, Kim Krogh Andersen, believes quantum computing will be a disruptive and transformative technology for decades to come, saying Telstra's early investment will help Australia build a "world-class tech nation".

Professor Simmons said the funding will be used to build a 100-qubit processor and enable something that is commercially relevant rather than theoretically important.

Reference link:

[1] http://sqc.com.au/2022/06/14/130-million-series-a-capital-raising/

[2] https://www.afr.com/technology/quantum-star-kicks-off-crucial-130m-funding-push-20220610-p5asyr