Perspectives on 2019 Investments for Quantum Computing Startups in EU

(Forbes) Quantonation is a French early-stage venture fund launched in 2018 dedicated to ‘Deep Physics’ startups with a focus on the emerging and disruptive field of quantum technologies. The fund recently invested in KETS, a Bristol-based company with the world’s first on-chip quantum encryption technologies, and LightOn, a Paris-based quantum computing startup working on optics-based hardware for acceleration of machine learning algorithms. Quantonationa CEO Christophe Jurczak was interviewed in this information-rich article.
Jurczak reported European investors are seeing great opportunities–far more than a year ago. He reported current focus is mostly on software. Another change is that rsearchers – who tend to be senior scientists or postdocs – are starting to create companies, or at least thinking about creating companies. He explained Europe is behind the the U.S. or Canada in startups but nevertheless there are more EU researchers who started showing an interest. Sweden has announced plans for supporting the quantum industry along with Finland.
Differentiating between hardware and services, Jurczak said investors who don’t have, or who don’t necessarily want to invest a lot into, understanding the science or technology, find it more straightforward to invest in startups that work on an application.