Distributed quantum compute company Nu Quantum, UK, announced in early December the closing of its series A funding round, which raised US$60 million—the largest financing round raised by a pure-play quantum network company and the largest quantum series A in the United Kingdom, according to the company. The firm says the investment will speed up its timeline to achieve fault tolerance by combining quantum processors into a powerful distributed quantum computer and “unlocking the projected US$1 trillion quantum computing market.”

Weaving processors

Spun out from Cambridge University, UK, in 2018 by founder and CEO Carmen Palacios-Berraquero (see OPN’s July/August 2021 feature article “Entrepreneurs to Watch feature” ) Nu Quantum’s goal is to enable “quantum photonic applications, from computing to networks to interconnects.” Palacios-Berraquero said, “When we launched seven years ago, very few were thinking about networked or distributed quantum computing as a strategy for scaling, but we saw it as one of the most urgent and challenging outstanding problems in the industry, and set out to solve it.”

The startup’s quantum networking stack, dubbed entanglement fabric, allows quantum computers to scale by “weaving” individual processors into a “distributed quantum fabric.” The company believes distributed architectures in data centers will set up the mass commercialization of quantum computing. Nu Quantum has also developed optical switching and detection units developed around photonic integrated circuits that can create and distribute quantum entanglement across computing nodes.

Collaborations and expansion

The funding round was led by the venture wing of National Grid Partners, UK, who operate the United Kingdom’s electricity network. Gresham House Ventures, UK, and Morpheus Ventures, USA, also participated, along with existing investors UK-based Amadeus Capital Partners, IQ Capital, Ahren Capital, Cambridge Enterprise Ventures, East Innovate and National Security Investment Fund; and Japan-based Sumitomo (Presidio Ventures).

Working toward its goal of reaching fault tolerance, the firm has collaborated with Cisco Systems, USA, and Quantinuum, UK, to establish the Quantum Data Center Alliance (QDA) and says the recent fundraising round will allow the company to continue its work bringing the quantum industry under the QDA’s umbrella.

Nu Quantum has also developed a US-based strategic advisory board since opening an office in Los Angeles, USA, in 2024. The company says the series A funds will support its continued international expansion.