Sydney-based quantum sensing startup Q-CTRL raises $25M Series B led by Airbus Ventures

Q-CTRL, a Sydney-based startup that provides quantum control engineering solutions, announced it has raised a $25 million Series B led by Airbus Ventures with participation from Ridgeline Partners, Main Sequence Ventures, Horizons Ventures, Square Peg Capital, Sierra Ventures, DCVC, Sequoia Capital China and In-Q-Tel.

The latest funding will support hiring staff and enable new data-as-a-service markets powered by quantum sensing, Q-CTRL founder and CEO Michael Biercuk said. It also will continue to invest in developing its quantum control for quantum computing and quantum sensing for acceleration, gravity and magnetic fields, Biercuk added. To date, the company has raised more than $43 million (60 million AUD) in total capital.

“Q-CTRL’s vision has always been to enable all applications of quantum technology. This new fundraising is critical in realizing our mission to deliver real value to the space, defense and commercial sectors,” said Biercuk.

Q-CTRL provides infrastructure software that improves quantum computing performance by addressing the most pressing challenge in the field — hardware error and instability, Biercuk told TechCrunch.

The Series B financing event comes on the heels of major technical and product development recently announced by Q-CTRL. It includes technical demonstrations using core Q-CTRL technology, known as quantum logic gates, to improve the performance of quantum algorithms executed on real quantum computers by 2,680%.