The future is bright for photonic quantum cloud computing company Xanadu. The company announced this week that it has raised $32 million in Series A financing. OMERS Ventures led the round with participation from Georgian Partners, Radical Ventures, Real Ventures, Silicon Valley Bank and Tim Draper. To-date, Xanadu has raised $41 million in capital.
Xanadu is not shying away from what it believes is the future of quantum computing. CEO Christian Weedbrook founded the startup in 2016 based on the discovery that photons—particles of light—can be used for quantum computing. "Confidence in Xanadu's photonic approach to building a quantum computer is reflected in the strong interest from the highly reputable VC firms we have in this Series A financing," said Weedbrook, in a statement.
With this latest funding, Toronto-based Xanadu is preparing to release its quantum cloud-computing platform. Weedbrook describes its vision as unique, offering the potential of an all-optical quantum data center with appeal across industries including pharmaceutical drug development and finance.
"Quantum computing has the potential to solve problems that we've previously only dreamed of solving. Xanadu's quantum optical approach stands out among other quantum computing technologies. Christian and the team have made great progress to realize this approach—and this funding makes me even more excited about the future."
"Quantum computing has the potential to solve problems that we've previously only dreamed of solving," said Seth Lloyd, Xanadu's chief scientific advisor. "Xanadu's quantum optical approach stands out among other quantum computing technologies. Christian and the team have made great progress to realize this approach—and this funding makes me even more excited about the future."
"We are thrilled to continue our support of Christian and the Xanadu team," said Sid Paquette, managing partner at OMERS Ventures. "Once they deploy the world's most powerful cloud-computing platform, we anticipate creative approaches from developers in harnessing Xanadu's next-generation processing capability and its potential to accelerate finance, quantum chemistry, material science, and artificial intelligence."