Investor Appetite for Quantum Computing Heating Up

Investor appetite in quantum computing is rapidly heating up, with investors lining up from both the public and private sectors. As the race to achieve quantum advantage intensifies, startups are raising funding to challenge the traditional tech giants. Some of the most notable investments to date include PsiQuantum’s funding round in March 2025, targeting $750 million at a $6 billion pre-money valuation, led by BlackRock. The company partners with GlobalFoundries to manufacture quantum chips using traditional semiconductor processes, aiming to scale its technology for real-world applications.

In the same month, QuantWare, a Delft-based startup, raised €20 million in a Series A round, led by Invest-NL and Innovation Quarter. QuantWare is developing technology to scale quantum chips beyond a million qubits, competing with industry giants like Google and IBM.

Further, Quantinuum, formed from the merger of Honeywell Quantum Solutions and Cambridge Quantum Computing, secured $300 million in January 2024 at a $5 billion pre-money valuation. Funding to accelerate the development of its integrated quantum computing platform.

Muted 2023

What were remarkable past investments? Still, despite a temporary downturn, several significant investments occurred in 2023, mainly in Europe:

• Quantum Motion, a UK-based startup, secured £42 million in Series B funding in February. This investment aims to accelerate the development of their silicon quantum processors. ​
• PASQAL, a French quantum computing company, raised €100 million in January to advance its quantum technology and expand its global presence. ​
• Oxford Quantum Circuits, another UK firm, closed a $100 million Series B funding.

Hot 2022

The previously hottest quantum year was 2022. In July 2022, Finnish quantum startup IQM raised over $130 million in a Series A round, marking one of the largest investments in European quantum computing. IQM focuses on applying quantum solutions to areas like energy grid optimization and climate modeling.

ColdQuanta, a Colorado company specializing in cold atom technology, raised $110 million in a Series B round in November 2022, with an estimated valuation between $583 million and $874 million. The company aims to diversify its quantum product portfolio.

Also in November 2022, Xanadu closed a $100 million round led by Tiger Global and joined by Besemer Venture Partners. The Toronto-based company achieved unicorn status with a valuation of $1 billion. The company is a leader in photonic quantum computing, with total funding of $250 million to date.

FInally Rigetti Computing went public via a SPAC merger in March 2022, reaching an estimated $1.5 billion valuation. The company, founded in 2013, plans to scale its quantum processors from 80 qubits to 1,000 by 2024 and 4,000 by 2026.

Pioneer

D-Wave Systems, pioneering commercial quantum computing since 2011, raised $30 million in its early days from investors like Jeff Bezos. The company continues to advance its quantum annealing technology. Annealing is a technique to solve complex optimization problems by finding the best possible solution from a large set of possibilities. Quantum computing is hypothesized to be the optimal technology for such complex optimization problems. Recently, D-wave reported a 128% year-over-year increase in bookings for fiscal year 2024, totaling over $23 million. The company also announced the sale of its first on-premise Advantage quantum computing system, expanding beyond their cloud-based services

Geop race

These groundbreaking investments signal increasing confidence in the potential of quantum computing to revolutionize industries from cryptography to drug discovery. With the pace of innovation accelerating, the quantum revolution is just getting started. Given its potential dual-use – both for military and civil applications – the geopolitical interest is high. It’s likely that all (wannabe) superpowers and other countries in geop hot zones, would like to control critical parts of the developing quantum computing ecosystem. Most bets are on superconducting-based modalities, but the dust is yet to settle.