The company said the funding will enable it to expand operations to meet surging global market demand for QEC technology, with a goal of achieving one million error-free quantum computer operations by 2026.
The round was led by Planet First Partners, with participation from sustainability venture capital investors ETF Partners and Singapore-based EDBI. Existing investors Cambridge Innovation Capital (CIC), Amadeus Capital Partners, the UK's National Security Strategic Investment Fund (NSSIF), and Altair also participated in the Series C round.
In a statement, Riverlane’s founder and CEO, Steve Brierley, said: “Quantum error correction is the critical enabler for the industry’s next huge wave of progress, from today’s small error-prone machines to large and reliable quantum computers that will start a new age of human progress as significant as the digital revolution. Our partners recognise the value in working with Riverlane to deliver a solution that fits their needs - we are building the right product at the right time to seize this opportunity.”
Riverlane said it has built the world’s largest dedicated quantum error correction team with almost 100 interdisciplinary experts working on Deltaflow, its core product.
Applicable to quantum computers using all major qubit types, Deltaflow comprises proprietary QEC chips, hardware and software technologies working in unison to correct ‘billions of errors per second.’
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While today’s best quantum computers can perform only a few hundred quantum operations before failure, the company said that Deltaflow will help this increase to millions and, ultimately, trillions of error-free quantum operations. Achieving this scale could unlock transformative applications in industries such as pharmaceuticals, chemicals, material science and transportation.
The Series C funding will enable Riverlane to deliver its QEC roadmap, published earlier this month. The roadmap lays out a development path to one million (Mega) error-free quantum computer operations (QuOps) as early as the end of 2026, and details a series of product releases incorporating significant scientific and technical breakthroughs toward this goal.
The ‘MegaQuOp’ milestone represents an important technological inflection point whereby a quantum computer can run operations that are impossible for a supercomputer to simulate. Reaching this threshold will enable the exploration of new use cases associated with simulating complex chemical processes. The simulation and design of better chemical catalysts could, for example, enable the production of new battery materials for more efficient clean energy storage and new processes for cleaner fertiliser production.
Riverlane partners with leading quantum computing companies and government bodies, including Rigetti Computing, Alice & Bob, QuEra Computing, Infleqtion, Atlantic Quantum and national labs such as Oak Ridge National Lab in the US and the UK’s National Quantum Computing Centre (NǪCC). With this investment, the company said it plans to expand its operations to meet growing demand from other hardware companies and governments worldwide.
Comment: The UK is closer to deindustrialisation than reindustrialisation
"..have been years in the making" and are embedded in the actors - thus making it difficult for UK industry to move on and develop and apply...