Current quantum processors (QPUs) often struggle to scale beyond a few hundred qubits, hindering the development of economically relevant quantum computers. As QPUs grow larger, unwanted interactions between qubits (crosstalk) become more prevalent, reducing overall system performance. Dutch company QuantWare aims to accelerate the development of practical quantum computers, as current systems are limited in their applications due to size and error rate constraints.
Today, the company secured €20M in a Series A round co-led by Invest-NL Deep Tech Fund and Innovation Quarter. Participation came from EIC Fund and existing investors, including FORWARD.one, Graduate Entrepreneur Fund, QDNL Participations, and Job van der Voort, founder and CEO of Remote. This brings QuantWare’s total funding to €40M.
The new funding will further develop VIO and its chip fabrication facilities. This will enable QuantWare to prepare VIO to create much larger QPUs and deliver its technology to more customers, meeting the increased demand from its global customer base.
How QuantWare provides off-the-shelf quantum processors and foundry services
QuantWare was founded in 2020 by Dr. Alessandro Bruno, a quantum engineer with over 15 years of experience in the field, and Matthijs Rijlaarsdam, a Delft University of Technology graduate. They met while researching at QuTech, a quantum technology research institute at TU Delft in the Netherlands. Rijlaarsdam told TFN: “QuantWare was created to accelerate the advent of the Quantum Computer. We exist to make economically relevant quantum computers a reality sooner by solving the bottlenecks faced by those making these systems today using our VIO technology.”
Previously, advanced quantum processors were only available to a few labs and big tech companies. QuantWare is democratising access to high-performance quantum computing hardware. The company aims to make practical quantum computers a reality sooner by solving key bottlenecks developers face. For instance, building a large-scale, full-stack quantum computer can cost around €45 million — QuantWare’s technology aims to reduce this cost by an order of magnitude.
Matthijs Rijlaarsdam, CEO and co-founder at QuantWare, said: “Our mission is to make VIO the scaling standard and have it power the first million-qubit quantum computers of the hyperscalers of tomorrow. We are building the best team in the world to achieve this mission. Accelerating the path towards that moment is essential, as systems of that size will change the world.”
Last week, QuantWare announced the launch of pre-orders for ‘Contralto-A,’ a QPU made for error correction. Following Google’s recent announcement of their ‘Willow’ error-correcting quantum chip, QuantWare has seen a surge in demand from customers seeking a competitive roadmap towards large-scale error correction. Contralto-A is the first step on such a roadmap and is designed to be easily upgraded to QuantWare’s larger VIO-powered QPUs. It is almost twice as large as competing commercially available solutions.
Scaling beyond limits with 3D chip architecture
The company’s VIO (Vertical I/O) technology solves scaling issues by using a proprietary 3D chip architecture, allowing for the integration of over 1 million qubits in a single QPU. Additionally, QuantWare’s VIO-176 supports up to 176 signal lines, addressing constraints in existing architectures. Rijlaarsdam added: “By fitting 1 million qubits in a QPU, our customers reach large systems sooner, and because a single QPU has higher fidelities than those connected over a network, that system will have much more compute than competing solutions.”
Without VIO, quantum processors are limited in their number of qubits, forcing computer builders to network together many smaller systems to build a single extensive system. Due to the noise these network links introduce, these systems become exponentially less powerful than a monolithic extensive system. While quantum computers from players like Google and IBM have 100 to around 1,000 qubits, QuantWare’s technology will enable the industry to develop far more powerful and capable quantum computers.
With best-in-industry fabrication capabilities, QuantWare offers VIO via its own designed QPUs, while third-party customers can access the technology through Foundry and Packaging Services. QuantWare already powers quantum computers for customers in 20 countries worldwide.
Speaking about competitors, Rijlaarsdam shared: “We aim to make VIO the scaling standard in the industry. It is fully compatible with all superconducting qubit designs and scales much further than any other solution. As such, we view all players as potential customers.”
As QuantWare continues to innovate and expand its offerings, it is poised to play a crucial role in making economically relevant quantum computers a reality sooner than previously thought possible.
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