Horizon Quantum Computing Raises $18.1 Million (US) Series A to Advance Quantum Software Development

Insider Summary

• Horizon Quantum Computing announced it has raised $18.1 million (US) Series A and notes that its total funding now stands at approximately $21.3 million.
• Investors include Sequoia Capital India, Tencent, SGInnovate, Pappas Capital and Expeditions Fund.
• Critical Quotes:. “While achieving large-scale quantum computing is a daunting challenge, there is no denying that progress towards the goal is being made. At Horizon, we are focused on unlocking the power of the future quantum computer, and have made significant progress toward our goal of enabling conventional software developers to leverage technology through automated algorithm abstraction and synthesis. This new investment will support our efforts to break through the barriers of useful quantum computing.” — Joe Fitzsimons, CEO of Horizon Quantum Computing
• Image: Horizon Quantum Computing Chief Science Officer Si-Hui Tan and CEO Joe Fitzsimons

PRESS RELEASE — Horizon Quantum Computing, a Singapore-based company that builds software development tools to unlock the potential of quantum computing hardware, today announced that it has secured a USD 18.1 million Series A investment from Sequoia Capital India, Tencent, SGInnovate , Pappas Capital, and Fund Expeditions.

The investment round will drive the company’s growth, enabling it to strengthen its science and engineering team to accelerate product development, establish a new engineering center in Europe, and bring Horizon’s unique technology to market. Horizon Quantum Computing’s total funding now stands at approximately USD 21.3 million.

“Quantum computing has the potential to completely change the way we think about computing,” said Horizon CEO, Dr Joe Fitzsimons. “While achieving large-scale quantum computing is a daunting challenge, there is no denying that progress towards the goal is being made. At Horizon, we are focused on unlocking the power of the future quantum computer, and have made significant progress toward our goal of enabling conventional software developers to leverage technology through automated algorithm abstraction and synthesis. This new investment will support our efforts to break through the barriers of useful quantum computing.”

Sequoia Capital India and SGInnovate, which led the Seed+ and Seed Horizon rounds respectively, both reiterated support for the company’s ambition to provide tools to make quantum computer programming as accessible and efficient as today’s conventional computers.

“We have long been optimistic about the developer economics thesis,” said Pieter Kemps, Partner, Surge at Sequoia Capital India and Southeast Asia. “At the same time, we believe that the tectonic shift will be driven by advances in quantum hardware. But unlocking quantum computing for millions of developers is no easy feat. Wouldn’t it be great if any developer could develop quantum algorithms with little or no previous quantum experience? This is the future that Horizon allows. We believe in Joe’s product vision around abstracting the underlying quantum physics to enable developers to easily build quantum software, and we are very impressed with the technological breakthroughs the team has achieved in such a short time.”

Quantum computing faces two major challenges to widespread adoption: developing hardware capable of supporting quantum computing at scale and creating software tools that allow programmers to leverage this hardware to solve real-world problems. Horizon Quantum Computing focuses on the second challenge, enabling domain experts to leverage quantum computing in the most computationally demanding workloads. Horizon is building a system for quantum software development that will allow developers to bridge the gap between classical code and quantum accelerated applications.

Horizon has reached a significant milestone in its technology development, demonstrating advanced compilation techniques, algorithm synthesis, and rapid device characterization. At the Q2B conference in Silicon Valley in December 2022, Horizon demonstrated its integrated development environment and announced that it will launch an access program earlier this year.

Last year, Horizon also joined Singapore’s National Quantum-Safe Network and recently witnessed the first data transmission from its node. Horizon’s participation in this network is a step toward fulfilling the company’s ambition to enable secure and privacy-preserving access to cloud-based quantum computers

Horizon Quantum Computing also recently announced it will open its first European office in Ireland where a new engineering center is being built. The company is currently recruiting for a software engineering team in Dublin to enhance its worldwide operations.