TEL AVIV, Israel--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Classiq, the leader in quantum computing software, announces today another significant expansion of its series B round to $49M by Canadian-Israeli VC Awz Ventures, from an initial closing of $36M by strategic investors—in the largest quantum software round to date.
“Awz Ventures is excited to be partnering with Classiq’s exceptional leadership team to fulfill the quantum revolution’s promise,” said Awz Ventures Founder & Managing Partner Yaron Ashkenazi.
“Classiq’s vision is impressive, coupled with a clear business plan that harnesses quantum computing’s commercial potential today. We have high hopes for Classiq and look forward to our continued collaboration.”
Global Expansion & Partnerships
Along with significantly growing its R&D team (to increase from 50 to 100 workers in 2023), the firm also announced near-term growth in Japan and Europe, opening local offices in the next months.
In addition to adding new offices and bringing on new customers and investors, Classiq forged new partnerships this year with Amazon, ColdQuanta, and NVIDIA, in order to streamline quantum experimentation and accelerate the enterprise path to quantum advantage. These valuable new alliances come on the heels of the partnerships that Classiq announced late last year with The Fraunhofer Institute, the leading organization for applied research in Europe, The Chicago Quantum Exchange, and other industry consortiums.
“With the invaluable support of our customers, partners, and investors, we are taking quantum computing software to a higher level,” said Nir Minerbi, Co-Founder and CEO of Classiq. “This coincides with the heightened importance of quantum computing both at enterprises and at the national level. I am proud of what we accomplished in the last six months, and I look forward with great anticipation to sharing Classiq’s next achievements with the market.”
Classiq addresses the need for higher-level software development for the quantum industry at a time during which enterprises are waking up to the fact that they must immediately start their quantum computing journeys – even amid economic headwinds. Enterprises realize that quantum hardware is progressing rapidly, and the expected timetable to actual business value is shorter than previously expected. Yet, at the same time, enterprises see an acute shortage of qualified people who can program quantum computers and understand that it is humanly impossible to create sophisticated software using low-level code.
The Classiq Edge
Only Classiq’s functional programming platform enables users to harness the power of these computers to enable critical enterprise applications, creating sophisticated, optimized, hardware-aware quantum software without requiring an army of quantum Ph.Ds.
These are the capabilities that organizations across sectors—from chemistry to finance to manufacturing, and beyond – can employ to innovate and advance in good times and bad.
Gartner Cool Vendor
Adding to Classiq’s running list of accolades, Classiq was recently named a Cool Vendor in the 2022 Gartner® “Cool Vendors™ in Quantum Computing” report published on May 23, 2022.
“Despite all the recent indications of a potential economic downturn, now is the time to invest in new technologies like quantum that could bear fruit in the next year or two,” said Minerbi. “Quantum computing can drive significant value for the global economy, as it can be a game-changing differentiator: from moonshot projects like curing cancer to everyday problems like optimizing shipping routes and balancing personal stock portfolios.
Investing in quantum today is akin to investing in the internet in the 1980s. Getting started with quantum today is inexpensive, and the cost of not being quantum-ready is potentially enormous. Companies and countries that don’t invest in quantum will be left behind.”
Leadership Expansion
To support the rapid growth in global quantum interest and deliver solutions to the difficulty that enterprises face, Classiq has nearly doubled its R&D group – now comprised of over 50 top-notch scientists and engineers. It also bolstered its market-facing team with seasoned executive Simon Fried as the company’s new Vice President of Business Development. Classiq also continues to file patent applications at the core of the quantum computing software stack.
To help ensure that organizations have access to both the technology and talent they need to gain quantum advantage, Classiq recently launched the Classiq Coding Competition. This effort encouraged global innovation and new audiences to enter the quantum computing field and raised awareness that building compact, efficient quantum circuits is both important and possible.
About Classiq
Classiq is the leading quantum software company, taking quantum software to a higher level. Built for organizations that want to jumpstart and accelerate their quantum computing programs, our patented software automatically converts high-level functional models into optimized quantum circuits for most quantum computers and cloud providers. Customers use the Classiq platform to build software they could not create otherwise, bypassing the quantum assembly level. Classiq also makes it easy to upskill functional experts with little quantum experience and integrate them into high-performing quantum teams. Backed by powerful investors such as HPE, HSBC, Samsung NEXT, and NTT, Classiq raised $63 million since its 2020 inception, built a world-class team of scientists and engineers, and distilled decades of quantum expertise into a groundbreaking software development platform. Classiq equips customers with what they need to take full advantage of the coming quantum computing revolution.
About Awz Ventures
Awz Ventures is a Canadian-Israeli venture capital firm investing in commercial multi-use applications of innovative AI-based, deep-tech, fintech, cyber security, and intelligence technologies. Awz manages over US $300M across four funds—inception through stage B—with more than 25 highly-promising portfolio companies to date.
Awz Ventures I is in the top 10% and Awz Ventures II in the top 25% of similar vintage funds for distributions to paid in capital (DPI) and total value to paid in capital (TVPI) based on benchmark data from 350 global funds (Pitchbook).
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