‘We can be a Google or Microsoft’: Quantum Brilliance raises $26m

Australia is fast becoming a quantum computing powerhouse, and this physicist turned founder says his firm has the potential to become one of the next tech giants.

Dr Andrew Horsley at the Quantum Brilliance laboratory at the Australian National University. Picture: Jamie Kidston/ANU

Australia’s credentials as a quantum computing powerhouse have taken one step further with homegrown start-up Quantum Brilliance closing a $US18m ($25.6m) round to fund its international expansion and build out its miniaturised quantum computers.

The Canberra-based company is developing a quantum computer that operates at room temperature, and has landed fresh funding from a range of investors including the CSIRO-backed Main Sequence, Investible, Ultratech Capital, MA Financial, Jelix Ventures, Rampersand and CM Equity as well as Victoria’s sovereign investment fund Breakthrough Victoria.

Quantum Brilliance, which has ties to Australian National University where co-founder Andrew Horsley works as a physicist, is developing quantum computers the size of semiconductor chips, which could be then used on any device and wherever classical computers exist currently. It’s a technology that Dr Horsley says could propel his tech company to eventually be the next Google or Microsoft.

“This is similar to going from no electricity to electricity, or going from no phone to a smartphone. It’ll be giving people tools to let them do things that they couldn’t have imagined,” Dr Horsley said in an interview.

“I think this has the potential to be one of the defining technologies of this century, and we can do that by becoming one of the biggest companies in the world.

“We are proud that our achievement in taking quantum computing from the lab to the data centre has been recognised by the investment community.”

Quantum Brilliance co-founders Mark Luo, Dr Marcus Doherty and Dr Andrew Horsley.

Full-blown quantum computers are expected to be ready by about 2030, and typically need to be kept extremely cold with cryogenic cooling. Quantum Brilliance has instead built a two-qubit diamond quantum “accelerator” that uses synthetic diamonds and runs at room temperature in any environment.

The quantum computing sector is estimated to be currently worth $US35.5bn, and is set to reach $US125bn by 2030. It harnesses the laws of quantum mechanics to solve problems too complex for classical computers.

“Quantum is often described as this big, magical thing that’s impossible to understand, but what we’re trying to do is make it like any other technology like your laptop,” Dr Horsley said. “There’s incredible complexity in your laptop and you don’t need to understand what’s going on it, it just does the tasks that you need it to do.

“That’s what we’re trying to do at Quantum Brilliance is make quantum computing just an everyday technology that is built into things that you’re using daily and you don’t think about it. It’ll just be this thing that enables cool new applications that can transform society. Using diamonds to build quantum computers lets you get rid of the infrastructure and complexity that other quantum systems need.”

Quantum Brilliance will use the funding to expand its Victorian research hub, which it started in conjunction with La Trobe University and RMIT University, and will offer industry PhD positions to build out local quantum capabilities.

“We are actively investing in quantum technologies to establish Australia, and the state of Victoria, as a global player in this rapidly evolving sector,” Breakthrough Victoria chief executive Grant Dooley said in a statement.

“Quantum Brilliance’s vision of mass producible, room temperature, small form factor quantum computers aligns closely with our mandate to fund ideas and technology in Victoria that will help solve globally significant problems, and we see them as a true innovator in the quantum computing industry.”

The start-up is also appearing next week at a three-day Sydney quantum summit to be attended by the federal minster for industry and science Ed Husic and Australia’s chief scientist Cathy Foley, along with delegations from the USA and the UK.