Nu Quantum raises $60m in the UK's largest Series A round for quantum computing
VenturesNu Quantum announces oversubscribed $60 million Series A funding round, the largest ever by a pure-play quantum networking company, and the largest quantum Series A in the UK to date.
Nu Quantum, the category creator and leader in distributed quantum computing, has closed its oversubscribed $60 million Series A funding round led by National Grid Partners, including participation from Gresham House Ventures and Morpheus Ventures, and continued support from existing investors Amadeus Capital Partners, IQ Capital, Ahren Capital, Cambridge Enterprise Ventures, East Innovate, NSSIF, and Sumitomo (Presidio Ventures).
It is the largest financing round ever raised by a pure-play quantum networking company, and the largest quantum Series A in the UK to date. The funding will accelerate Nu Quantum’s mission to reach fault tolerance by interconnecting quantum processors into a more powerful distributed quantum computer, unlocking the projected $1 trillion quantum computing market.
Quantum computers have the potential to solve problems that will always be beyond the reach of any classical supercomputer. Applications could include modelling molecules on an atomic level to simulation and optimisation of systems with millions of interdependent parameters, like electric grids or financial markets. Until now, the quantum computing industry has focused on improving individual quantum processors. But achieving real utility and fault tolerance will require scaling to systems with 1,000x more qubits than exist today.
Nu Quantum’s quantum networking stack opens a new approach: enabling quantum computers to scale by weaving individual processors into a modular, distributed computing fabric. Networking has played a critical role in the classical computing industry, enabling Cloud and AI data centres, and High Performance Computing. Nu Quantum’s belief is that the mass commercialisation of quantum computing will happen via distributed architectures in quantum datacentres, underpinned by Nu Quantum’s networking infrastructure – the Entanglement Fabric. Crucially, Nu Quantum’s architecture is adaptable to support scaling for multiple different Qubit modalities.
“This investment validates our vision and the maturity of our solution as the path to scaling. I’d like to warmly thank the Nu Quantum team for their achievements, and our investors for their support.”
Dr Carmen Palacios-Berraquero continued:
“When we launched seven years ago, very few were thinking about networked or distributed quantum computing as a strategy for scaling, but we saw it as one of the most urgent and challenging outstanding problems in the industry, and set out to solve it. We’ve made great strides in shaping the market and the technology since then. As we’ve grown, I’m proud we have created a culture defined by fearless innovation, and fuelled by collaboration and diversity under a shared mission to accelerate quantum computing for good. This investment validates our vision and the maturity of our solution as the path to scaling. I’d like to warmly thank the Nu Quantum team for their achievements, and our investors for their support.”
Christine Martin, Head of Ventures at Cambridge Enterprise, said:
“This is a landmark moment for Nu Quantum and for the UK’s quantum community. An oversubscribed $60 million Series A underscores the depth of confidence in Nu Quantum’s technology. We’re proud to have supported the team from the earliest stages of their journey, and we’re delighted to continue to do so as they scale their vision for distributed quantum computing. Huge congratulations to Carmen and the entire Nu Quantum team – we’re thrilled to stand alongside you for the road ahead.”
The Nu Quantum team
Steve Smith, Chief Strategy and Regulation Officer of National Grid and President of National Grid Partners, said:
“We are closer to quantum computing having an impact on businesses and lives than many people think. Nu Quantum is at the forefront of bringing this powerful technology closer to market and using it to solve real-world challenges today.”
Maya Ward, Investment Director at Gresham House Ventures, said:
“As quantum computing continues to rapidly evolve, we see huge potential for enabling technologies that can address the challenges of scaling and fidelity. Nu Quantum offers a compelling path to solving these critical industry pain points and unlocking practical, large-scale quantum advantage.”
Damien Petty, Partner at Morpheus Ventures, said:
“Nu Quantum is tackling one of the biggest barriers in quantum computing, scalability. Its technology and vision position it at the driving edge of this transformation today and hybrid interconnectivity in the future. We’re excited to back a company turning quantum’s potential into real commercial impact.”
Dr Hemant Mardia, Chair of Nu Quantum, said:
“Photonic networking has been fundamental to the scaling of data centres. Under Carmen’s visionary leadership, Nu Quantum is developing the same paradigm for quantum computing. This exceptional Series A funding will accelerate delivery of our roadmap and international expansion of our talented team.”
The Quantum Networking Layer
Quantum computers rely on qubits and high-quality entanglement between them to run powerful computations. To move beyond isolated processors, we must create entanglement links between qubits in adjacent processors, via photonic quantum networking. Achieving this with high-fidelity and high rate is today the single biggest technical challenge preventing the modular scaling of quantum computers, communication and sensor networks. Nu Quantum’s modular, interoperable networking layer – called the Entanglement Fabric – will provide the architecture and connectivity at the rates necessary for distributed, fault-tolerant computing.
Nu Quantum’s Future Plans
Nu Quantum’s significant fundraise will drive the next phase of product development and deployment, delivering on an ambitious roadmap to advance quantum networking state-of-the-art in both performance and scale. Nu Quantum will build on the success of its world-first quantum networking subsystems: the Qubit-Photon Interface in 2024, and the Quantum Networking Unit in 2025. The overall system architecture will be informed by its pioneering work on Distributed Quantum Error Correction.
The funding will also support Nu Quantum’s international expansion, including the growth of its presence in Europe and the US. Following the opening of its Los Angeles office in 2024, the company has built a strong US-based Strategic Advisory Board, including Dr. Robert Sutor, formerly of IBM, and Roland Acra, former CTO of networking giant Cisco System, and Richard Moulds, former Head of Amazon Braket, the AWS Quantum Computing as a Service platform. Nu Quantum will continue to bring together the ecosystem under the umbrella of the Quantum Datacenter Alliance (QDA), and work with Quantum Processing Unit (QPU) partners to advance network-processor integration.
Image credits: Nu Quantum
