Universal Quantum raises over €89 million in a Series A, with Nauta Capital joining

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Universal Quantum, a Brighton company building large-scale quantum computers, has raised more than €89 million ($100 million) in a Series A. That makes it the largest Series A any British quantum company has ever closed. DCVC and Firgun Ventures led the round together. Roblox founder and CEO Dave Baszucki joined, along with Nauta Capital, The Venture Collective, the Australian pension funds Hostplus and NGS Super, and a long list of other new and existing backers. The company raised €4 million at seed in June 2020, so this round is a considerably larger cheque.

Professors Sebastian Weidt and Winfried Hensinger of the University of Sussex founded the company in 2018. In 2017 they had co-written the first practical blueprint for a large trapped-ion quantum computer. Their approach holds charged atoms in place with electric fields and uses them as qubits, then links the chips into modules. The company now has more than 100 full-time staff across three continents. It is currently delivering a €68 million ($77 million) contract for the German Aerospace Center (DLR).

The money will go to developing and selling the modular technology and to expansion. That includes a new R&D centre in Singapore, its first outside Europe, as well as growth in the United States, Japan and its Hamburg hub. Bill Bartee, managing partner at Main Sequence, observed that in this sector "hype and hyperbole are far ahead of commercial reality", which is an unusual thing to say while announcing a nine-figure investment.