Amadeus Capital Partners backs $100m round for Photonic Inc
Amadeus co-founder Dr Hermann Hauser, who launched Arm 33 years ago from a Cambridge base, says Photonic has “innovation with awesome potential.”
The latest haul takes the Vancouver company’s funding to date to $140m. Contacted by Business Weekly the company declined to say whether Cambridge figured on its radar despite obvious attractions. The company said it had opened UK and US offices at the start of 2023 but declined to say where in each country.
Cambridge is home to a growing throng of game-changing quantum computing companies. They include Riverlane, Quantinuum, Nu Quantum, who could be joined very soon by Australian player Quantum Brilliance which could set up here, headed by former Arm executive Andrew Dunn.
Photonic is building one of the world’s first scalable, fault-tolerant and unified quantum computing and networking platforms based on photonically linked silicon spin qubits.
The latest funds came from organisations including British Columbia Investment Management Corporation, Microsoft Corporation, the UK government’s National Security Strategic Investment Fund, Inovia Capital, and Amadeus.
Photonic is making fault-tolerant quantum technologies a reality with its unique silicon spin-photon interface. The technology leverages the memory and computing capabilities of spins and the connectivity of photonics to build one of the world’s first scalable, fault-tolerant, and networked quantum computers. The company has over 120 employees with a head office in Canada and has recently opened offices in the UK and US.
CEO Paul Terry said: “Photonic’s game-changing approach to deliver on the decades-old promises of quantum computing continues to be fuelled by our committed investors and best-in-class employees.
“The support of such knowledgeable investors who believe in our work is a testament to our team, our technology and the direction in which we are headed.”
Hermann Hauser added: “Photonic is solving one of the central challenges for scalable quantum computing. By linking qubits with photons on a silicon-based architecture, the power of quantum processing can be unleashed across a distributed computing network with confidence that error correction is able to keep pace. This is an innovation with awesome potential.”
Photonic also reveals that it is collaborating with Microsoft to power the global quantum ecosystem and accelerating quantum computing’s transformational benefits with new architecture.
A spokesperson for the company told Business Weekly: “We are really pleased to have joined the UK's thriving quantum ecosystem and look forward to refining our plans for the region over the months ahead in what will be a really exciting period of geographic expansion for Photonic.”
