By Sudip Kar-Gupta
BRUSSELS (Reuters) -Finnish-headquartered company IQM Quantum Computers has raised $320 million in a new funding round, the company said on Wednesday, as Europe tries to keep pace with global leaders in the field from the United States.
IQM said the funding round had brought in a U.S. investor for the first time, namely Ten Eleven Ventures, along with funding from existing investors such as Tesi, Elo Mutual Pension Insurance and World Fund.
Goldman Sachs advised IQM on the funding round, which has brought IQM’s total funding to date to $600 million.
Quantum computers are faster than conventional computers. The technology is seen as crucial for cybersecurity and the sector has major research funding from technology giants such as Microsoft, Alphabet’s Google and IBM.
The fastest-growing startups in the sector are mainly based in the United States, such as IonQ, which agreed to buy British rival Oxford Ionics in June, and Rigetti.
“This funding round will fuel our company growth,” said IQM Quantum Computers co-founder and co-CEO Jan Goetz.
“We will also focus on strong business expansion in the U.S. and other global markets based on our attractive on-premises offerings for quantum computers and the recently announced upgrade of our cloud offering,” he added.
The European Union’s tech chief Henna Virkkunen said in July that the EU wanted more private funding for the region’s quantum technology sector. Virkkunen said that currently only 5% of global private investments in quantum technology were being made in Europe.
(Reporting by Sudip Kar-Gupta; Editing by Jamie Freed)
