The funding will help the business further expand into Singapore, the US, Japan and Germany.

University of Sussex-founded Universal Quantum has raised more than $100m in what it said is the largest Series A ever raised by a UK-headquartered quantum company.

The round was co-led by Silicon Valley deep-tech investor DCVC and London-based early-stage quantum investor Firgun Ventures, with participation from the likes of Singapore’s EDBI, Artal and IAG Capital. Roblox founder and CEO Dave Baszucki also took part in the round.

Universal Quantum was founded in 2018 by long-standing collaborators and Sussex quantum professors Sebastian Weidt and Winfried Hensinger.

A year prior in 2017, the two co-published what they called the “first practical blueprint” for large-scale trapped ion quantum computers, which they used as the basis for their start-up.

The company develops next-generation quantum devices for clients including the German Aerospace Centre.

Its computers are designed by linking together many advanced quantum chips to deliver the overall high-quality qubit count required to solve problems that classical computers generally cannot, according to the company.

“Universal Quantum’s progress reflects our partners’ belief that we represent one of the most credible paths to quantum computing at scale,” said Weidt, the company’s CEO.

“This round unites an extraordinary group of investors from the world’s most important pools of capital around a single mission: delivering utility-scale quantum computing.”

The new capital will be used to further develop and commercialise Universal’s products, the company said, as well as supporting a recently announced expansion into Singapore – where it has established its first R&D centre outside Europe – as well as in the US, Japan and across its German hub in Hamburg.

“Having laid some of the earliest foundations for large-scale trapped-ion architectures, Sebastian and Winfried are true pioneers in the field,” commented Zeynep Korutürk, founding and managing partner of Firgun Ventures.

“With Europe under pressure to prove it can compete on frontier technologies, we are proud to invest in a European company that has grown into a global player, one that is well positioned to help define the future of industrial-scale quantum computing.”

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