Quobly Secures €19 Million in Funding to Drive Development of Fault Tolerant Quantum Computers

Insider Summary

• Quobly announced the closing of its first fundraising round of 19 million euros.
• The company was formerly known as Siquance.
• The round was led by Quantonation, Bpifrance through the Deep Tech 2030 fund managed on behalf of the State as part of France 2030, Supernova Invest and Innovacom.

PRESS RELEASE — Quobly, formerly known as Siquance, a company developing fault-tolerant quantum computing processors, announced the close of its first fundraising round of 19 million euros.

Led by Quantonation, Bpifrance through the Deep Tech 2030 fund managed on behalf of the State as part of France 2030, Supernova Invest and Innovacom, with the participation of Crédit Agricole Alpes Développement and CEA Investissement, Caisse d’Epargne Rhone Alpes and BNP Paribas, this operation aims to double the company’s research and development efforts and establish the necessary remote access interface for software development.

Becoming a global leader in quantum computing Quantum computing promises breakthroughs in computing performance and addresses a wide range of strategic and cutting-edge industry sectors such as healthcare, engineering, energy, chemicals, transportation, and finance. Disruptive in nature, this offers an opportunity for Europe to restore balance of power with the United States and Asia in the digital space.

Founded in 2022 in Grenoble, Quobly is a company developing fault-tolerant quantum computing processors. The technological innovation, compared to early quantum computer prototypes, is based on using standard classical computing technology to define the quantum bit, the basic unit of quantum computing. This opens the door to producing the millions of quantum bits needed to enable fault-tolerant computing. Quobly leverages existing production capacity, primarily French and European semiconductor plants.

After 20 years of developing silicon technology for computing, Maud Vinet (CEO) founded Quobly with Tristan Meunier (CTO), an international expert in quantum engineering, and François Perruchot (CSO), who has more than 10 years experience in strategic marketing for advanced technologies. François, Tristan and Maud are internationally recognized pioneers in silicon-based quantum computing. They build on 15 years of strategic research conducted within the CEA and CNRS. The company has strong support from the CEA and CNRS, which initially had a presence in its capital.

This funding round enables Quobly to establish technology partnerships and create a leading partner ecosystem to accelerate its R&D in competing for quantum bit quantity and quality. Quobly is now recruiting the best international experts in silicon technology and quantum engineering, with ambitions to have 50 employees by the end of 2024. Quobly benefits from CEA and CNRS expertise, their R&D capabilities, and their intellectual property through collaboration and licensing agreements. Quobly also benefits from its robust ecosystem, covering all quantum technology challenges from fundamental research to industrialization. This fundraising round is the largest “seed” financing ever achieved by a European quantum company in terms of private capital invested.

“This first round of fundraising will allow us to accelerate our technology development by forging relationships with microelectronics industry players and conducting scientific demonstrations that will position us as a technology leader. We are pleased to be able to count on Quantonation, Bpifrance, Supernova Invest and Innovacom, who have recognized the sector’s expertise in quantum, semiconductor and deep technologies,” said Maud Vinet, President and Co-Founder of Quobly.

Olivier Tonneau, partner at Quantonation, commented: “With their outstanding scientific and technological expertise, the Quobly team also benefits from strong relationships with the semiconductor technology ecosystem to fully exploit their technological potential. We are confident that their spin qubit platform in silicon will allow scaling of quantum processors and achieving regimes not accessible to classical processors. The Quantonation team is proud to support Quobly through our Quantonation I fund.”

“This initial investment of the Deep Tech 2030 fund, managed on behalf of the State, in the capital city of Quobly underscores Bpifrance’s strong commitment to supporting France’s most ambitious deeptech companies. We were impressed by the experience and complementarity of the founding team in the quantum physics and semiconductor domains. We are excited to participate in this operation and look forward to discovering the technological advancements the company will make in the coming months,” added Gwenaël Hamon, Senior Director of Investments at Bpifrance.

“By developing a semiconductor-based quantum computer, Quobly opens up an interesting and relevant pathway to a truly high-performing quantum computer. The company’s approach will lead to a major technological and industrial revolution, the result of years of research conducted by the CEA and CNRS. Supernova Invest is proud to support this pioneering team by investing with our new Supernova Innovation 3 fund in this Grenoble-based gem with global potential,” commented Damien Bretegnier, Investment Director at Supernova Invest.

“Our Technocom3 seed fund is proud to support this ambitious scientific, technological and entrepreneurial project. Supporting pioneering initiatives is part of Innovacom’s DNA, and we are confident that Quobly has the necessary assets to bring an innovative industrial dimension to quantum computing,” added Frédéric Humbert, member of the executive board at Innovacom.

For this operation, Quobly was advised by law firms Kelten Avocats Grenoble, Franck Robert Avocats and KP Social.