The promise of quantum computing is increasingly reflected in the figures. Quandela, one of the French start-ups involved in the manufacture of these new-generation supercomputers, announced on Tuesday, November 7, that it had secured €50 million in funding. The new funds come in addition to the first €15 million raised in 2021. This amount, which makes the deal one of the year's 15 largest rounds of funding for a French start-up, confirms the growing appeal of quantum computing to investors. In January, Pasqal, one of Quandela's competitors, raised €100 million for its second funding round just a year and a half after an initial round of €25 million.
Of this amount, €9.5 million, from the "First Factory" initiative of the France 2030 state investment plan, will pay for the Quandela factory in Massy (in the Paris region), inaugurated in June, from which Europe's very first quantum computer has just been delivered to a private industrial customer. It has been installed in a data center belonging to the French OVHcloud group, which can then rent out its computing capacity to its own customers.
The balance of €50 million was paid by Quandela's four historical shareholders: Bpifrance and the Quantonation, Omnes and Serena funds. Crédit Mutuel Innovation took advantage of the transaction to acquire a stake in Quandela. Lastly, Europe, through the European Innovation Council fund, made a contribution, "giving Quandela an international dimension," according to Niccolo Somaschi, one of Quandela's three founders and current chief technology officer.
In addition to financing the ramp-up of production at the Massy plant (Quandela plans to assemble three new machines in 2024), the aim of this second round of funding since the company was founded in 2017 is also to give it a foothold abroad, in countries like South Korea and Canada, where national quantum plans have been launched.
Subsequently, Quandela is not ruling out options in the United States. "The entry barrier there is high but we think there's one trick left to play. We're going to start working on a dedicated strategy," explained Somaschi. In his opinion "France has a high-quality quantum ecosystem, with excellent researchers and entrepreneurs. We shouldn't have any complications." The international aura of Alain Aspect, winner of the 2022 Nobel Prize in Physics for his work on quantum physics, also lends credibility to French expertise in this field. He is one of the co-founders of Pasqal and a member of Quandela's scientific advisory board.
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