Quantum computing duo enter Business Weekly awards
It is broadly accepted that quantum computing will completely transform the IT universe.
In business, quantum computing would translate into a broad array of competitive advantages, including faster design, testing and deployment of new products and services.
Quantum computing is expected to revolutionise scientific research, leading to rapid advances in medicine, manufacturing, logistics, marketing and financial services. Anything you can do with a traditional computer you’ll be able to do dramatically faster with a quantum computer.
Nu Quantum and Cambridge Quantum Computing have each entered the Business Weekly Awards.
A new state-of-the-art lab, a major recruitment drive and further R & D for quantum photonics technologies have been triggered by a £2.1 million seed funding round by Nu Quantum. Amadeus Capital Partners led the round while Ahren Innovation Capital, IQ Capital, Cambridge Enterprise and Martlet Capital also followed on from the pre-seed investment round last September. Seraphim Capital has joined as a new investor.
The funding will go towards a state-of-the-art photonics lab in Cambridge and a strong recruitment push for scientists, product team members and business functions as the company approaches the launch of its first commercial technology demonstration.
Nu Quantum brings together a portfolio of intellectual property combining quantum optics, semiconductor photonics and information theory, spun out of the University of Cambridge after eight years of research at the Cavendish Laboratory.
The business is developing high-performance light-emitting and light-detecting components, which operate at the single-photon level and at ambient temperature.
Nu Quantum is one of a handful of companies in the world developing this kind of technology. The components could become an integral part of larger quantum photonics systems - which will employ this kind of technology in the thousands – enabling applications such as quantum cryptography and simulation.
Cambridge Quantum Computing has just launched the world’s first cloud-based Quantum Random Number Generation Service with integrated verification for the user in partnership with the $77 billion turnover IBM. The joint offering will initially be available to members of the IBM Q Network, delivering certified quantum randomness for the first time.
Randomness is an essential and ubiquitous raw material in almost all digital interactions and is also used in cybersecurity to encrypt data and communications and perform simulation analysis across many sectors. These include the petrochemical, pharmaceutical, chemical engineering, finance and gaming industries.
The application developed by CQC generates true maximal randomness, or entropy, implemented on an IBM Quantum Computer that can be verified and thus certified as truly quantum – and therefore truly and maximally random – for the first time. This cannot be accomplished on a classical computer.
The IBM Q Network is a community of more than 100 Fortune 500 companies, academic institutions, startups and national research labs working with IBM to advance quantum computing.
CQC recently completed a $45 million financing from investors including Honeywell Ventures, IBM Ventures, JSR Corporation, Serendipity Capital, Alvarium Investments and Talipot Holdings to further accelerate commercialisation.
CQC has offices in the UK, US and Japan with a team of over 130 professionals.
• Enter the Business Weekly Awards online or email Tony Quested: tquested@businessweekly.co.uk
