ORCA Computing Raises £2.9M ($3.7M) to Develop Quantum Technology Utilizing “Off the Shelf” Components

(EIN.News) ORCA Computing Ltd, a quantum computing company based in London, UK today announces the close of £2.9M ($3.7M) public and private financing to begin building their optical-fiber based quantum computer. The pre-seed round was led by Atmos Ventures, with the participation of Oxford Sciences Innovation (OSI) and Quantonation, and leverages three grants from Innovate UK, the UK’s innovation agency. This funding establishes ORCA Computing as a competitive new player in the global race to build a large-scale quantum computer.
Already advanced in their efforts to deliver a first of a kind high quality source of photons, ORCA’s roadmap also includes plans to initially deliver a scaled down quantum computer, which they will offer as a learning and development tool to strategic partners.
“ORCA has a novel approach to solving the scalability and connectivity challenges that the quantum computing hardware community is currently facing” said Hadi Solh, Managing Partner at Atmos. “We are thrilled to join the team in their journey to make photonic quantum computing a reality.”
“For more than a decade, our group at Oxford has pioneered research into quantum memories for real-world quantum technologies” said ORCA co-founder Professor Ian Walmsley. “it was only recently that we demonstrated a platform with performance that opened a unique opportunity to apply these memories to quantum computing, creating an exciting promising, more modular and scalable platform for this exciting arena.”