Seeqc today announced it has secured a total of $22.4 million in its Series A fundraising, led by the EQT Ventures fund, to advance commercially viable application-specific quantum computing systems. In addition to EQT Ventures, one of the largest venture capital funds in Europe, Swedish-based FAM AB, a privately owned holding company owned by the three largest Wallenberg Foundations, also participated in the round.
The Series A funding also includes $5 million from M Ventures, the strategic, corporate venture capital arm of Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany. The M Ventures funding was first announced in April 2020. Additional investors in the Series A round include BlueYard Capital, New Lab Ventures and the Partnership Fund for New York (PFNY).
Seeqc is developing a new approach to making quantum computing useful called Digital Quantum Computing. Digital quantum computing combines classical and quantum computing, forming an all-digital architecture to address the efficiency, stability and cost issues that often plague quantum computing systems using CMOS-based analog, microwave control infrastructure. This new architecture includes proprietary digital chips that are co-located with qubit chips as multi-chip modules in the same cryogenically cooled system. Seeqc’s Digital Quantum Management (DQM) system-on-a-chip architecture enables the company to co-design specific quantum hardware that matches the unique requirements of quantum algorithms and applications.
By integrating superconducting qubit chips, proprietary Single Flux Quantum (SFQ) application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs) and SFQ-based 10-40 GHz superconductive classical co-processors, Seeqc may deliver a new level of cost-effectiveness and enable new functionalities in quantum computing. In terms of scalability, the company is eliminating many of the challenges of building quantum computers with thousands or even millions of qubits. Other industry approaches to quantum computing involve unwieldy systems requiring numerous, costly coaxial cables and complex CMOS readout/control for each qubit. These systems can’t scale effectively to meet the needs of businesses.
In addition to reducing system complexity, latency and cost, Seeqc’s expertise in SFQ for circuit design and manufacture enables the company to engineer systems that operate at about four orders of magnitude lower energy compared to equivalent CMOS-based systems. This is another critical element to building a scalable quantum-classical architecture.
The company has deep experience in superconductor circuits and owns and operates one of the only multi-layer superconductor commercial chip foundries in the world capable of producing complex SFQ integrated circuits. This unique capability provides the underlying infrastructure to design, test and manufacture quantum-ready superconductor systems for a variety of applications.