Quantum Computing

Riverlane Raises £15 Million Series B to Advance Useful Quantum Computing


Insider Summary

  • Riverlane announces £15 million Series B, led by Molten Ventures.
  • Riverlane is a quantum engineering company and the deal is expected to “substantially increase” the company’s valuation.
  • Critical Quote: “Solving quantum error correction – one of the defining scientific challenges of our time – will enable a quantum computer to accurately simulate the true complexity of nature. Armed with a handy quantum computer, humanity is about to enter the Quantum Age, where we move from slow trial and error to solve complex problems to an era of fast design using quantum computers. We haven’t even begun to imagine the many ways such technology will positively change our world.” — Riverlane Founder and CEO Steve Brierley
  • Image: Riverlane

PRESS RELEASE — Quantum engineering company Riverlane today announced it has raised £15 million in Series B funding.

The round was led by Molten Ventures and included participation from simulation, high performance computing (HPC), and artificial intelligence leader Altair and returning investors Cambridge Innovation Capital (CIC), Amadeus Capital Partners, and the National Security Strategic Investment Fund (NSSIF). Altair’s CEO and founder, James R. Scapa, will sit on Riverlane’s board.

The new investment substantially increases Riverlane’s company valuation and is expected to see the company through to break-even cash flow.

The additional capital will be used to accelerate development of Riverlane’s operating system for quantum computing with error correction, Deltaflow.OS.

Error correction is a defining technical challenge for quantum computing to achieve the scale and reliability to deliver on its transformative potential. Riverlane has partnered with many of the world’s leading quantum hardware companies, university labs, and government agencies to build and implement Deltaflow.OS with various types of qubits.

The quantum computing industry is expected to create up to $850 billion in economic value in the next 15-30 years (August 2022, Boston Consulting Group). To deliver transformational new applications in fields such as drug design, materials science, aerospace, and climate change, quantum computers need to reliably perform one trillion high-speed operations without interruption.

However, today’s quantum computers can only perform a maximum of a few hundred quantum operations before failing. This is due to the high error rate caused by the subtle nature of all types of qubits. For quantum computers to be useful, it is critical to find ways to detect, diagnose, and correct quantum faults as they occur, so that they can scale from a few hundred current error-free quantum operations (QuOps) to one trillion (TeraQuOps). This is the number of operations required to execute most of the known quantum algorithms.

To address the TeraQuOp challenge, Riverlane designed the qubit hardware and software ‘Control’ and fault ‘Decoding’. ‘Control’ and ‘Decode’ are key components of Riverlane’s quantum operating system, Deltaflow.OS.

In November 2022, Riverlane demonstrated the world’s fastest Decode solution allowing Deltaflow.OS to support a much larger number of qubits than before.

By the end of 2025, Riverlane will expand its Decode solution to a chip-based ‘TeraQuOp’ decoder that can process up to 100TB of data per second – the equivalent of processing as much data as streaming Netflix globally. To solve this problem, we must design and engineer the special chips that every quantum computer requires. The UK is uniquely positioned in the world as a center of excellence for quantum error correction and chip design and is the reason Riverlane is headquartered in Cambridge, England.

Riverlane Founder and CEO Steve Brierley: “Solving quantum error correction – one of the defining scientific challenges of our time – will enable a quantum computer to accurately simulate the true complexity of nature. Armed with a handy quantum computer, humanity is about to enter the Quantum Age, where we move from slow trial and error to solve complex problems to an era of fast design using quantum computers. We haven’t even begun to imagine the many ways such technology will positively change our world.”

To address this challenge, Riverlane partners with some of the world’s leading academic laboratories including the University of Wisconsin, Duke University, University of Oxford and University of Innsbruck, and more than a third of the world’s quantum hardware companies, such as Infleqtion (formerly Cold Quanta), Qolab, Quera , Seec, Rigetti and Universal Quantum.

To gain a better understanding of transformative industrial applications using error-corrected quantum computers, Riverlane has also partnered with corporate leaders such as AstraZeneca, Merck, Astex, Rolls Royce, and Johnson Matthey.

With offices in Cambridge, England, Boston and San Francisco, Riverlane’s team has more than doubled over the past year to 100 engineers and scientists.

A spokesperson for British Business Bank said: “The National Security Strategic Investment Fund (NSSIF) is a joint initiative with the HM Government and is the government’s venture arm for advanced dual-use technologies. NSSIF is supporting long-term equity investments to accelerate the adoption of HMG’s future national security and defense capabilities and the development of the UK’s dual-use technology ecosystem. The investment in Riverlane recognizes the company’s role as part of the UK’s world-leading quantum technology sector.”

Stuart Chapman, head of portfolio at Molten Ventures, said: “Riverlane’s impressive advances in quantum computing, particularly in the critical area of ​​quantum error correction, have led to a significant increase in its valuation, even in difficult technology markets. With Deltaflow.OS under development, Steve and the Riverlane team are ready to bring quantum computing to the commercial world. We are excited to renew our support and have never felt more confident in Riverlane’s ability to drive quantum innovation and generate lasting value.”

Amelia Armor, partner at Amadeus Capital Partners, says: “From the start, Amadeus Capital Partners identified Riverlane as a company with a long-term strategy and technical expertise to solve the most difficult problems in quantum computing. We are proud to continue our support for Riverlane, helping the company continue its vision, designing and engineering the complex chips every quantum computer requires to control qubits and simultaneously decode quantum computer-generated errors. As the company improves its business and technology, we look forward to being part of Riverlane’s continued growth and future success.”

“Riverlane’s breakthrough technology provides a critical common software platform including error correction across all quantum hardware architectures to accelerate the impact and scale of quantum computing.” said James R. Scapa, founder and chief executive officer, Altair. “Altair has a long history of manufacturing and investing in HPC technology. Collaborating with Riverlane allows Altair to stay ahead of the curve in transformative technologies to help our customers accelerate their innovation.”



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