Quantum Tech’s Growing Startup Community Raises Hundreds of Millions in Private Capital

(WashingtonPost) A growing start-up community is betting that a “quantum revolution” in computing will materialize sooner rather than later, and its members have raised hundreds of millions of dollars in private capital in a race to be first to market. Estimates are 117 private start-ups are working on quantum technology.
Rigetti Computing, a California-based start-up, is among a handful of companies with its own quantum computer. The company announced Thursday it is acquiring QxBranch, a D.C.-based start-up that specializes in quantum-enabled software, in an all-equity transaction.
Others working on quantum hardware include a Canadian tech firm called D-wave, which has sold its computers to Lockheed Martin and others, reportedly for millions of dollars each.
A College Park, Md.-based company called IonQ has raised roughly $22 million from investors including New Enterprise Associates, Amazon Web Services and the venture capital arm of Google. It recently hired Peter Chapman, formerly the engineering director at Amazon Prime, as chief executive.