Riverlane, a startup that makes semiconductors to help reduce quantum computing errors, raised $75 million in its latest round of funding.
The round was led by Europe’s Planet First Partners, which focuses on climate tech investments. Venture capital firm ETF Partners and Singapore’s EDBI also joined. It marked the latest in a growing series of investments in quantum computing, which has long held out the promise of delivering world-changing advances.
Based in Cambridge, England and Boston, Riverlane doesn’t build quantum computers of its own. It designs chips to correct errors generated in conducting that method of computation.
“Today, the best quantum computers in the world can perform about 100 to 1,000 operations before the errors in the device overwhelm the computation,” Riverlane founder and Chief Executive Officer Steve Brierley said in an interview. His company’s next-generation product will help quantum computers get to 1 million error-free operations. “And that’s really important, because that’s when a quantum computer goes beyond the capability of any classical supercomputer.”
Riverlane will use the new funds to expand operations to meet rising demand from a mushrooming in recent years of startups that build quantum computers. While the technology has yet to produce practical applications, significant investment is coming from the likes of Alphabet Inc., Honeywell International Inc. and International Business Machines Corp., as well as governments ordering the machines to test them out.
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“Over half of the world’s quantum computing companies are choosing to buy from us,” Brierley said, declining to specify Riverlane’s latest valuation. According to data firm PitchBook, the firm was last valued at $166.5 million.