TEL-AVIV, Israel– In yet another sign that the world is moving from quantum exploration to quantum production – and that quantum software development is a key ingredient in gaining quantum advantage – Classiq, which provides a breakthrough platform for Quantum Algorithm Design, today announced that it has raised $33 million in a Series B round.
Hewlett Packard Pathfinder, the venture capital program of Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE); Phoenix, a $60-billion insurance company; Spike Ventures, a Stanford alumni investor group; and Samsung NEXT, the investment arm of Samsung are new investors in the company. This round also included personal investments from Lip-Bu Tan and Harvey Jones, joining existing investors Wing VC, Team8, Entrée Capital, Sumitomo Corp. (through IN Venture) and OurCrowd. This new round brings Classiq’s total funding to $48 million in 20 months of existence.
“We welcome our new investors and are grateful for the continued support of our existing ones. Together, we are paving the fastest way towards quantum advantage and the only way beyond it,” said Nir Minerbi, co-founder and CEO at Classiq. “This new funding comes at a pivotal time. The quantum industry is now moving from consulting services to quantum products and from prototyping to production. With this funding, we will expand upon our work to become the platform on which forward-thinking organizations develop game-changing quantum software that makes the impossible possible.”
Classiq will use the new funds to quadruple the size of the company – by expanding its team of world-class engineers and researchers, opening new offices around the globe, and continuing to develop and file revolutionary quantum algorithm design patents. Classiq customers, leading global companies in a variety of industries, will benefit from cutting-edge products and even better developer support.
“We were impressed by Classiq’s novel synthesis engine that automates the creation of quantum circuits and leads to significantly lower barriers of entry for quantum computing,” said Paul Glaser, vice president and head of Hewlett Packard Pathfinder. “We are proud to join this investment round for Classiq, a true pioneer in the quantum software development arena.”
Boaz Morris, investment manager at Phoenix, said, “While quantum hardware has made impressive progress, the software used to operate these advanced computers remains woefully inadequate. Classiq’s hardware-agnostic platform enables enterprises to develop sophisticated quantum software faster and better than any other method. We are thrilled to partner with the world-class team at Classiq as they continue to execute on their vision and become the leader in the quantum software stack.”
Harvey Jones is the former president and CEO of Synopsys and a board member at NVIDIA. Lip-Bu Tan is the executive chairman and former president and CEO of Cadence Design Systems. Tan and Jones have a special appreciation for the importance of Classiq’s value proposition, since Cadence and Synopsys do for electronic design what Classiq does for quantum software design.
ADM Michael Rogers, USN (RET), an operating partner for existing investor Team8, said, “Quantum computing has wide-ranging strategic economic and national security implications, both as a defensive measure as well as a way to gain leverage. But quantum computers are useless without the right software, and Classiq delivers a breakthrough in the way quantum software is developed.”
Carbon dioxide reduction to address climate change, drug discovery, financial portfolio optimization, materials science breakthroughs and optimal transportation flow and routing are just a few of the ways that quantum computing can create wealth, drive efficiencies and improve health. But while quantum computers are here today and becoming more powerful very quickly, hardware is just part of what’s needed to fulfill these world-changing pursuits.
To gain quantum advantage, organizations also need new software platforms that make it far easier for both quantum and non-quantum domain experts to create quantum algorithms and combine them into scalable, enterprise-grade solutions. Without such platforms, quantum computing might remain a science experiment. Classiq enables quantum computing to reach its true potential by enabling more individuals to contribute to – and more people and organizations to benefit from – quantum endeavors.
“Quantum computing is considered by many current and aspiring QC end users as critical to their overall innovative capabilities as well as being a strong enabler of competitive advantage. But there is an acute need for software that brings to life the scale and capabilities of quantum machines,” said Bob Sorensen, senior vice president of research at Hyperion Research. “The Classiq approach of using functional models to abstract the complexity of quantum computing is a very promising way to deliver first-mover advantages to companies and their stakeholders.”
