Tel Aviv-based startup Quantum Source Labs Ltd. today announced that it has raised $50 million in early-stage funding with the aim to develop cost-effective, practical quantum computing solutions at large scale that can unlock the commercial potential for the new technology.
The company’s Series A funding round was led by Eclipse and also joined by new investors Standard Investments, Level VC and Canon Equity, alongside existing investors Pitango First, Grove Ventures, 10D and Dell Technologies Capital. Combined with a $12 million seed extension led by Dell Technologies announced last year, this latest funding round brings the total raised by the company to more than $77 million.
Quantum computing promises to change the landscape for advancements in drug design, material development, cybersecurity, logistics and more by unlocking massively parallel algorithms that can solve problems that classical computing cannot resolve.
Differing from traditional computers, quantum computers use qubits, which can represent both 1s and 0s simultaneously, unlike a classical bit. That enables them to solve large-scale, complex problems faster by trying more solutions at once. Large-scale, fault-tolerant quantum computers, however, have been difficult to build and scale because quantum circuits can be error-prone and must be run through error correction.
Founded in 2021, Quantum Source is led by semiconductor veterans and serial entrepreneurs Oded Melamed, Gil Semo, Dan Charash and professor Barak Dayan, a world-leading scientist in the field of quantum optics, who saw an opportunity to solve this challenge using photonic quantum computing. The team decided to take novel approach using single atoms on a photonic chip to allow a photon to create quantum entanglement, which generates the qubit.
According to the company, this is “four orders of magnitude better efficiency” better than other implementation making its solution more scalable, compact and simpler to control. Quantum Source said that this enables the realization of large-scale, fault-tolerant quantum computers and minimize the overhead required for quantum error correction.
“Our game-changing approach, which combines photonic and atomic qubits, will propel quantum computing further toward commercialization, by making large-scale, fault-tolerant quantum computers available to corporations at a practical cost,” said Melamed, chief executive of Quantum Source.
The company currently employs a team of 45, more than half of whom hold Ph.D.s, and said it is uniquely positioned to innovate on photonic computing and build on a superior fault-tolerant quantum computing platform. The new funding would go toward enhancing the company’s engineering capabilities and accelerating the commercialization of its quantum solutions.
“Public, private and government sectors have made significant investments into the quantum industry, underscoring the impact quantum computing can have on shaping our future,” said board member Naftali Bennett, a former Israeli prime minister. “Quantum Source is at the forefront of this revolution and I believe they will be the team to unlock the promise of quantum computing to transform critical industries.”