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European quantum computing leader IQM raises €128m led by World Fund to combat the climate crisis

IQM will use the funding to expand international business and accelerate product development, with a focus on developing quantum processes to combat the climate crisis

IQM is the leading European startup building superconducting quantum computers for HPC centers, research institutes and businesses across the continent
In the future, quantum computing could help to solve complex problems at faster speeds than classical computers for anything from drug development to predicting financial markets
The closing of this round is the largest raised by a European quantum computing company

Espoo, Finland, 22 July 2022 – IQM Quantum Computers (IQM), the European leader in building superconducting quantum computers, is announcing today it has raised €128 million ($128m) in Series A2 funding led by World Fund to expand its international business and accelerate product development to tackle the world’s most pressing problems. The funding, which follows €39m ($39m) Series A1 announcement in 2020 and includes part of a €35m ($35m) venture loan from the European Investment Bank (EIB) announced earlier this year, makes it the largest ever funding round raised by a European quantum computing company. The round included participation from Varma, OurCrowd, EIC Fund, Bayern Kapital, QuIC SPV, and Tofino, as well as existing investors MIG Fonds, Tesi, OpenOcean, Maki.vc, Matadero QED, Vsquared, Salvia GmbH, Santo Venture Capital GmbH, and Tencent.

Pioneering quantum hardware for the future of computing

Since launching in 2018, IQM has become the fastest-growing quantum computer company and has cemented its position as the European leader in building superconducting quantum computers. IQM is also the only European company that is already delivering full-stack quantum systems. The technology could create up to $850 billion in value globally over the next 15-30 years as it scales up and improves accuracy and stability, according to BCG. As an enabling technology that can deliver supercharged, precise computer power that is immensely more advanced than any supercomputer, it is expected to improve drug discovery, transform encryption and data protection, and predict financial systems. For example, a problem that could take a supercomputer 10,000 years to solve would take a quantum computer only four minutes.

With one of the largest teams of world-class quantum experts on the continent, IQM’s on-premise quantum computers are used by research laboratories and supercomputing centres to address some of the world’s most challenging problems in healthcare, finance, logistics and chemistry. The company’s innovative co-design strategy also enables industrial customers to work closely with IQM to achieve quantum advantage based on application-specific processors.

Quantum’s ground-breaking potential to solve the climate crisis

Since the company was founded, IQM’s mission statement has been to use its technology for the well-being of humankind and that extends to tackling the climate crisis. Lacklustre attempts by world governments and global companies to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees by 2050 have made it increasingly clear that drastic action is needed to discover the solutions that will actually make a difference to the planet. In the future, quantum computing could be integral to finding resolutions to climate issues due to the technology’s ability to model solutions that would previously be impossible to achieve through current levels of computing power, with McKinsey forecasting that climate technologies developed using quantum computing could reduce carbon dioxide emissions by seven gigatons a year by 2035. This could include helping to decarbonise power and fuel, re-shaping industrial operations and reforming food and forestry.

With this new investment, IQM is dedicating resources to co-designing quantum computer processes to provide solutions to tackle the climate crisis and promote sustainable development to improve lives around the world. Due to the leap in computing power that IQM’s quantum computers would provide, its technology could enable innovation in areas such as energy grid optimisation and climate modelling. Already, the company is working on novel approaches to develop better battery solutions with a leading car manufacturer, as well as ground-breaking methods for new material design and quantum algorithms that can be used to tackle climate problems. This is only the start of IQM’s climate goals. World Fund only invests in technologies with a Climate Performance Potential (CPP) of removing 100 million tonnes of carbon from the atmosphere yearly by 2040. The fund’s CPP calculations show that the battery performance and adoption use cases alone would enable IQM’s technology to exceed this threshold.

The quantum decade

The next decade is predicted to be the decade of quantum technology with governments and organisations investing in preparing for the quantum future now. IQM is already partnering with organisations such as Atos, VTT and Infineon to develop solutions that leverage this transformative technology. To help continue its work, this new funding will be used to expand its international business operations, accelerate research and pioneer new product development.

Dr. Jan Goetz, CEO and Co-founder of IQM Quantum Computers, said: “This funding underscores the importance of our mission: building quantum computers for the well-being of humankind. It also demonstrates the confidence in our business model and the continued belief in our team's ability to build the future of quantum technologies. The climate crisis and sustainable development are the most pressing issues of our time, and we’re delighted that our new and existing investors will join us on this journey to use our technology to help transform the world for the better.”

Daria Saharova, Founding Partner at World Fund, said: “Quantum computing holds the potential to drive the breakthroughs needed to solve the climate crisis. We are proud to lead this round and support IQM’s ambition to deliver quantum advantage to climate and sustainability goals. This investment aligns with our commitment to back only companies with the highest climate performance potential (CPP) so that our portfolio can save two gigatons of emissions yearly by 2040 - the equivalent to four percent of all global emissions. It gives us immense pleasure to support the amazing IQM team and its founders, who have meticulously and consistently built IQM with a strong on-premises business model focused on high-performance computing centres and national quantum labs. We look forward to being a part of their growth phase towards global leadership.”

Nicklas Bergman, Member of the EIC Fund IC, said: “We’ve been following the quantum computing space for more than a decade. With IQM, the EIC Fund sees the rare combination of a breakthrough technology paired with an outstanding team, mission, and promising market opportunities. Through direct investment of funds the EIC Fund wants to support IQM on its mission to build the first 1,000-qubit quantum computer and establish Europe’s leadership in the quantum technologies. In addition, to the direct equity investment from EIC Fund, IQM has also received the 2020 EIC Accelerator funding.”

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About IQM Quantum Computers:

IQM is the pan-European leader in building quantum computers. IQM provides on-premises quantum computers for supercomputing data centres and research labs and offers full access to its hardware. For industrial customers, IQM delivers a quantum advantage through a unique application-specific, co-design approach. IQM is building Finland’s first commercial 54-qubit quantum computer with VTT, and an IQM-led consortium (Q-Exa) is also building a quantum computer in Germany. This computer will be integrated into an HPC supercomputer to create a quantum accelerator for future scientific research. IQM has over 180+ employees with offices in Paris, Madrid, Munich, and Espoo.

About World Fund

World Fund is the leading Europe-focused climate venture capital fund established by Daria Saharova, Danijel Višević, Craig Douglas, and Tim Schumacher. From energy, food, agriculture, and land use, to building materials, manufacturing and transport, World Fund is investing in European tech with significant climate performance potential (CPP). The investment team comprises engineers, physicists, chemists, biologists, early and growth stage investors. World Fund is backing those entrepreneurs who are building tech for a regenerative world.

About EIC Fund:

Established in June 2020, the European Innovation Council Fund (EIC Fund) is a breakthrough initiative of the European Commission to make direct equity and quasi-equity investments (between €500.000 and €15 million) in European high impact and deep tech start-ups and scale ups. With a long-term perspective, the EIC Fund invests in companies from any sector, across all EU member states as well as in associated countries.

The EIC Fund aims to fill a critical financing gap and its main purpose is to support companies in the development and commercialization of disruptive technologies. This is achieved by crowding-in market players, and further sharing risk by building a large network of capital providers and strategic partners suitable for co-investments and follow-on funding.

The Fund pays particular attention to the empowerment and support of female founders as well as the ambition to reduce the innovation divide among EU countries.