Singapore quantum computing start-up secures $18.1m

SGInnovate, US-based Pappas Capital, and Poland’s Expeditions Fund also participated in the Series A round. Total funding since the company’s inception in 2018 comes to USD 21.3m, with earlier investors including Japan’s Abies Ventures, US-based DCVC, and Summer Capital of the Netherlands.

Horizon was established by Joe Fitzsimons, who holds a PhD in quantum architecture and has 18 years of experience in the field. The company's programming tools simplify and expedite the process of developing software for quantum computers.

The idea is to remove the need for prior quantum computing experience to develop applications for quantum hardware. To this end, the company aims to build a system that enables developers to bridge the gap between classical code and quantum-accelerated applications.

The company claims to have achieved a few key technical milestones, which it describes as “demonstrating advanced compilation techniques, algorithm synthesis and rapid device characterisation.” It said it would launch an “early access programme” later this year.

“Wouldn’t it be amazing if any developer could develop quantum algorithms with little to no prior quantum experience? This is the future that Horizon is enabling,” Pieter Kemps, a partner at Surge, Sequoia’s accelerator for India and Southeast Asia, said in a statement.

“We believe in Joe’s product vision around abstracting the underlying quantum physics to enable developers to create quantum software with ease, and we have been hugely impressed by the technological breakthroughs that the team has achieved in a short period of time.”

The Series A capital will be used to establish a new engineering base in Europe and build out the science and engineering teams. The first office outside Singapore was set up in Dublin in November of last year. At the time, the company said it planned to hire more than 10 new staff within six months.

Quantum computing can handle exponentially larger data sets than classical computing at speed and is set to have significant applications in artificial intelligence, financial modelling, cybersecurity, drug discovery, and autonomous driving, among other fields.

Unlike Horizon, most companies in this space are focused on the technical aspects of creating the hardware itself. The key challenge is making sufficiently robust equipment at scale. Machines of this kind typically require extremely low temperatures to operate, making them difficult to roll out in small, inexpensive formats.

Regional activity in this niche came as recently as February when Australia’s Quantum Brilliance raised USD 18m from a mix of international and local investors. The company is in the initial stages of rolling out compact hardware with a software kit that allows customers to develop and test applications for commercialisation.

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• Topics
• Southeast Asia
• Technology
• Early-stage
• Singapore
• Sequoia Capital
• Tencent
• quantum computing
• deep-tech