- Classiq recently announced that it raised $33 million in Series B funding. These are the details.
Classiq – a company that provides a breakthrough platform for Quantum Algorithm Design – recently announced that it has raised $33 million in a Series B round. Hewlett Packard Pathfinder, the venture capital program of Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE); Phoenix, a $60-billion insurance company; Spike Ventures, a Stanford alumni investor group; and Samsung NEXT, the investment arm of Samsung are new investors in the company. And this round also included personal investments from Lip-Bu Tan and Harvey Jones, joining existing investors Wing VC, Team8, Entrée Capital, Sumitomo Corp. (through IN Venture), and OurCrowd. This new funding round brings Classiq’s total funding to $48 million in 20 months of existence.
Harvey Jones is the former president and CEO of Synopsys and a board member at NVIDIA. And Lip-Bu Tan is the executive chairman and former president and CEO of Cadence Design Systems. Tan and Jones have a special appreciation for the importance of Classiq’s value proposition since Cadence and Synopsys do for electronic design what Classiq does for quantum software design.
Classiq plans to use the new funds to quadruple the size of the company – by expanding its team of world-class engineers and researchers, opening new offices around the globe, and continuing to develop and file revolutionary quantum algorithm design patents. And Classiq customers will benefit from cutting-edge products and even better developer support.
Carbon dioxide reduction to address climate change, drug discovery, financial portfolio optimization, materials science breakthroughs, and optimal transportation flow and routing are just a few of the ways that quantum computing can create wealth, drive efficiencies and improve health. But even though quantum computers are here today and becoming more powerful very quickly, hardware is just part of what’s needed to fulfill these world-changing pursuits.
To gain quantum advantage, organizations also need new software platforms that make it far easier for both quantum and non-quantum domain experts to create quantum algorithms and combine them into scalable, enterprise-grade solutions. And without such platforms, quantum computing might remain a science experiment. Classiq enables quantum computing to reach its true potential by enabling more individuals to contribute to – and more people and organizations to benefit from – quantum endeavors.
KEY QUOTES:
“We welcome our new investors and are grateful for the continued support of our existing ones. Together, we are paving the fastest way towards quantum advantage and the only way beyond it. This new funding comes at a pivotal time. The quantum industry is now moving from consulting services to quantum products and from prototyping to production. With this funding, we will expand upon our work to become the platform on which forward-thinking organizations develop game-changing quantum software that makes the impossible possible.”
“In the span of 20 months, Classiq has raised $48 million – including this new round, which is among the largest investments for a quantum software company ever, assembled a world-class team, and built a market-leading product that is now used by some of the premier companies in the world. We look forward to what’s next.”
– Nir Minerbi, co-founder and CEO at Classiq
“We were impressed by Classiq’s novel synthesis engine that automates the creation of quantum circuits and leads to significantly lower barriers of entry for quantum computing. We are proud to join this investment round for Classiq, a true pioneer in the quantum software development arena.”
– Paul Glaser, vice president and head of Hewlett Packard Pathfinder
“While quantum hardware has made impressive progress, the software used to operate these advanced computers remains woefully inadequate. Classiq’s hardware-agnostic platform enables enterprises to develop sophisticated quantum software faster and better than any other method. We are thrilled to partner with the world-class team at Classiq as they continue to execute on their vision and become the leader in the quantum software stack.”
– Boaz Morris, investment manager at Phoenix
“Quantum computing has wide-ranging strategic economic and national security implications, both as a defensive measure as well as a way to gain leverage. But quantum computers are useless without the right software, and Classiq delivers a breakthrough in the way quantum software is developed.”
– ADM Michael Rogers, USN (RET), an operating partner for existing investor Team8
“Quantum computing is considered by many current and aspiring QC end users as critical to their overall innovative capabilities as well as being a strong enabler of competitive advantage. But there is an acute need for software that brings to life the scale and capabilities of quantum machines. The Classiq approach of using functional models to abstract the complexity of quantum computing is a very promising way to deliver first-mover advantages to companies and their stakeholders.”
– Bob Sorensen, senior vice president of research at Hyperion Research
