Finnish quantum computing startup IQM has achieved unicorn status. The company recently raised over 300 million dollars in a Series B funding round led by Ten Eleven Ventures, a United States investment firm with a focus on cybersecurity.
A university spinout, IQM builds quantum computers designed for on-premises installations and offers a cloud platform that utilizes this hardware. The company has already sold its quantum computers to enterprises in the APAC region and the United States, but its strongest market remains in Europe.
This new funding is intended to change that. The startup plans to use the capital for a commercial push and for research and development to align with the market’s evolving understanding of what is needed to turn advances in quantum science into practical impact.
To win clients in the United States while facing competition from large technology companies like IBM, Google, and Microsoft, IQM recognizes it must accelerate its roadmap for both hardware and software. According to its co-CEO and co-founder Jan Goetz, this means investing more in the company’s chip fabrication facilities, software development, and error correction research.
Error correction, which is the ability to detect and fix errors inherent in quantum systems, is a highly relevant topic. The very notion of what makes a quantum computer competitive is being redefined, as the ability to compute a large number of qubits is less of a holy grail today than it once was. Goetz stated that it is always a trade-off between the number of qubits and their quality and reliability.
Navigating this trade-off will be critical for developing the real-world uses for quantum computing that have long been envisioned but not prioritized. Now that quantum advances over traditional supercomputers no longer seem like science fiction, companies like IQM are working to ensure their computers will have practical applications sooner rather than later.
Reliability aside, IQM’s roadmap aligns with the sector’s growing focus on the software layer required to put quantum computing into the hands of its first end users. These users are experts with PhDs in fields other than quantum computing.
An immediate software-related objective for IQM is to build a developer platform that Goetz describes as akin to an SDK for quantum computing. The goal is to bring in as many developers as possible to start working on their machines. As an alternative to IBM’s approach, this platform will rely on Qrisp, an open-source project by the Berlin-based research institute FOKUS.
Second to its headquarters in Finland, Germany is where most of IQM’s 300 staff members are located, with a large research and development unit operating out of Munich. Goetz said that with this funding round, the company wants to grow its team and create more commercial traction, especially in the United States.
In the future, the company is considering becoming more operational in the United States. Goetz added that tariffs could play a role in this decision, and one thing under consideration is that if they sell more systems in the US, they could perform local assembly.
For the time being, IQM will remain focused on sales in the United States. The company recently sold an on-premise quantum computer to the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, a science lab run by the United States Department of Energy.
According to Ten Eleven Ventures’ co-founder and managing general partner Alex Doll, there is a strong overlap between the investment firm’s thesis and IQM’s focus. Doll stated that quantum computing will be a pivotal pillar in the next era of cybersecurity and computational innovation. Doll is also joining IQM’s board as part of the fundraising.
Goetz said the fact that Ten Eleven Ventures has a strong network in the United States made it a strong fit for the startup.
The Series B round also saw investment from Finnish investment firm Tesi, as well as Schwarz Group, Winbond Electronics Corporation, EIC, Bayern Kapital, and World Fund. According to IQM, this new round brings its total funding to date to 600 million dollars.
Goetz feels the size of the round was justified by the commercial and technical milestones the startup hit in the last few months. He stated that they are now the company that has sold the most quantum computers globally, across all major continents.
In absolute numbers, that is still a small figure. In late 2024, the company hit a production milestone of 30 quantum computers. This serves as a reminder that the sector still has a long way to go before it reaches a wider audience.
Still, IQM’s 54-qubit chips are already in use at computing centers, research labs, universities, and enterprises. Goetz said the company is now on track to deploying the first 150-qubit systems, a fact that seems to matter much more to him than IQM becoming a unicorn.