Skip to main content

Here's an exclusive look at the pitch deck used by Universal Quantum to raise $4.5 million to take on Google and build the 1-million qubit computer

* British quantum computing startup Universal Quantum has emerged from stealth to announce a £3.6 million seed round. * The startup wants to build a quantum computer with chips comprising one million qubits. For context, today's quantum computers have 20 to 50 qubits and the technology is difficult to scale up. * Others competing in the field include Google and IBM, with quantum computing promising major breakthroughs in climate change, drug discovery, and other scientific fields. * Read on for an exclusive look at Universal Quantum's pitch deck. * Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories. British startup Universal Quantum has raised £3.6 million ($4.5 million) in new funding to try and beat IBM and Google to the moonshot of building a functioning quantum computer. The University of Sussex spinout has emerged from stealth to announce its ambition to build a 1-million qubit quantum computer and test whether the tech might solve some of humanity's biggest challenges. Quantum computing is at the very edge of physics and computer science, but the race to build a true super computer is heating up with Palo Alto's PsiQuantum raising $215 million in April, and Finland's IQM announcing a €15 million raise on Thursday. The promise of quantum computing is that it could be considerably more powerful than traditional computing, enabling humanity to solve major challenges around climate change, drug discovery, and areas we haven't thought of. The trouble is, quantum computers are extremely difficult to run and, depending on who you talk to, none have really managed to outstrip classical computers. In traditional computing, information is encoded in bits that are only one of two values at any one time, usually represented as 0 or 1, on or off. Quantum computing operates in the realm of quantum mechanics, a mysterious branch of physics that famously no one understands. And it doesn't rely on bits, but a unit called a qubit which can be in two states simultaneously. "What quantum computers do is make use of a number of very cool effects you see in the quantum world and one of them, for example, is that something can be in two places at the same time," said Dr Sebastian Weidt, CEO and cofounder of Universal Quantum, adding: "In a conventional computer, bits are represented as a one or a zero. And because we now live in the quantum world, we can represent ones and zeroes at the same time. That's where a lot of the computational power comes in." Different players working on this technology are taking different approaches to try and exhibit "quantum effects", Weidt said. IBM and other firms use superconducting qubits which are fabricated onto a chip, which is then cooled down to absolute zero or minus 273.15 degrees Celsius. That technology literally requires something like a giant refrigerator which is, for obvious reasons, quite difficult to scale up. Universal Quantum says it has developed tech based on trapped ions. "You use individual charged atoms and you encode information inside of them, so each atom becomes a qubit," said Weidt, adding that the qubits are in a vacuum system with cool technology and there is no need for giant refrigerators. Weidt argues this will be easier to scale up to build a true quantum computer. "It's not enough to be at tens of qubits, and that's where we're currently at .... we need to be at the millions of qubits. "We didn't care too much about doing stuff with five qubits, 10 qubits to get a great Nature paper," he added. "We asked ourselves: 'Okay, what would it take to build a 1-million qubit computer, what's stopping us right now?'" Universal Quantum's new backers include Village Global — a fund that offers connections to Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, and Microsoft founder Bill Gates. Other backers include Hoxton Ventures, Propagator VC, Luminous VC, and 7 Percent. Read Universal Quantum's (redacted) pitch deck below:
https://bit.ly/3fATiMj

Popular posts from this blog

All the coolest features of every Tesla vehicle ever made or unveiled, ranked (TSLA)

* Tesla's vehicles are and always have been crammed with great ideas. * These range from touchscreen interfaces to innovative battery designs to staggering acceleration. * I've driven or experienced every vehicle Tesla has ever sold or intends to sell in the future. * Here are all my favorite features, ranked. * Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories. In about two decades, Tesla has done what everyone in the auto industry thought was impossible: create an all-electric brand that could sell hundreds of thousands of vehicles. Tesla could have done that in a boring or modest way, developing  the equivalent of an electric VW Beetle. Instead, Tesla made fantastically compelling cars that are fast, look amazing, and are packed with features. Here's a rundown of all my favorites, ranked from bottom to top: FOLLOW US: On Facebook for more car and transportation content! Tesla has been in business for 17 years. In that period of time, it's consisten...
Read more

Inside the fight between my small Iowa hometown and a $12 billion utility over smart meters and the radiation that some residents call 'poison'

* Many residents in Fairfield, Iowa, home to thousands of disciples of a deceased Indian guru, claim that radiation emitted by cell phones and other devices is harmful to human health.  * Those beliefs created a problem for a local utility that began deploying radiation-emitting smart meters in 2017. * Through administrative proceedings, Fairfield residents fought back against the utility's smart meter program — and, for the most part, won.  * At its core, the fight wasn't about the health effects of smart meters. It was about the freedom to exercise a set of beliefs, as unusual as they may be. * Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories. FAIRFIELD, IOWA — I was standing outside my childhood home on an unseasonably warm spring day when I saw my neighbor approaching from across the street.  It was May, and I had been staying with my parents months after escaping New York City. In their home, more than 80 miles away from the nearest airport, the threat of a pa...
Read more

Here's an exclusive look at the pitch deck London fintech Lanistar used to raise $19 million at a $190 million valuation

* London-based fintech startup Lanistar has raised a £15 million ($19 million) funding round from Milaya Capital.  * Founded in 2019, Lanistar is building a personal financial management platform that will launch later in 2020.  * "We're expecting a huge amount of growth upon our launch and have already seen strong interest among our sign ups," Gurhan Kiziloz, founder and CEO of Lanistar, told Business Insider. * Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.  The coronavirus lockdown in the UK has brought the importance of managing money into sharp relief. A recent study from Money.com shows that 71% of UK households have saved cash during lockdown, and, with uncertainty about jobs and the economy looming, money management is now front of mind for many. Lanistar, a banking platform with a focus on personal finance, is one company offering tools for consumers to better manage their money. It has just raised a £15 million ($19 million) funding round from Mil...
Read more