The California-based VC firm spawned from the US defence intelligence community In-Q-Tel has grabbed a share of Australian quantum computing startup Quantum Brilliance as a part of its US$20 million Series A funding round.
The capital raise, first flagged last month and announced in full on Wednesday night, will be used to fund the creation of a Quantum Diamond Foundry in Melbourne that will create a pathway toward scaling the production of its technology.
Quantum Brilliance produces synthetic diamond-based chips for use in quantum sensors and computers which operate at room temperature. The company completed the raise in December.
The Australian National University spinout’s chief executive Mark Luo told InnovationAus.com that the investment from In-Q-Tel, as well as Japan’s InterValley Ventures as a strategic investor, validates the importance of the company’s technology.
Other investors in the round include Main Sequence Ventures, Alium Capital Management, Investible, and Jelix Ventures in the round, as well as the National Reconstruction Fund Corporation (NRFC) and Breakthrough Victoria.
The federal government’s $13 million investment via the NRF makes up the bulk of the Series A, followed by Breakthrough Victoria, which has fronted up $10 million of the $30 million capital raise.

In-Q-Tel was set up by the CIA in 1999 to ensure US intelligence agencies had access to the cutting-edge technology and innovative products. It now operates globally and works with more than a dozen other US government agencies.
The investment firm opened an office in Australia in late 2018 and has since made investments in around 20 local startups. Other Australia-based quantum companies Q-CTRL and Quintessence Labs have also been funded by In-Q-Tel, as has quantum sensing startup Advanced Navigation.
Mark Luo told InnovationAus.com that securing investment from In-Q-Tel is a significant stamp of approval, given it is an “active investor into quantum technology”.
Given that In-Q-Tel serves as a “bridge between innovation and the US Defense intelligence community, they are able to leverage access and knowledge to the latest advancements to drive capabilities around national security”, according to Mr Luo.
Mr Luo said the In-Q-Tel funding validated Quantum Brilliance’s technology and its drive toward producing “mass deployable quantum technology”.
Quantum Brilliance’s Melbourne facility will feature a pilot scale development line aimed at driving further improvements to the reliability, design precision, cost-effectiveness and manufacturability of the company’s chip technology, with a particular focus on sensing devices.
In a statement, In-Q-Tel managing director Nat Puffer said diamond quantum technology “holds immense promise for developing compact and ruggedised quantum sensors and accelerators”.
“We believe this technology will play a pivotal role in addressing strategic challenges across industries and critical national priorities,” Mr Puffer said.
Quantum technologies are a priority for advanced capabilities collaboration under AUKUS pillar II, with an initial focus on advanced positioning, navigation, and timing devices.
The investment from Japan-Australia VC InterValley Ventures created an important strategic link into the Japanese market, as well as its commercial research community. InterValley is backed by Japanese institutional investor Mizuho Financial Group.
Given the importance of emerging quantum technologies, Mr Luo stressed the importance of being able to develop products and markets alongside ‘JAUKUS’ allies (Japan plus AUKUS).
He said attracting investment and industrial partnerships from Japan is important for the company’s long term success, given that Japan is “one of the most active quantum diamond technology intellectual property and supply chain developers globally”.
“Japan has five to ten companies that are all proactively using synthetic diamonds in technology development for the microelectronics industry, including quantum as well as things like power electronics,” Mr Luo said.
InterValley managing partner Simon Wright said the VC fund was “excited to support Quantum Brilliance’s value chain strategy in Japan”, describing their approach as “innovative” and aligning “perfectly with the growing urgency in the semiconductor and quantum race”.
Quantum Brilliance’s technology is already on track to be installed alongside high-performance computing systems at the US Energy department funded Oak Ridge National Laboratory, to improve compute and lower energy consumption.
Last year, it also jointly won a $58 million contract from Cyberagentur, the German government’s cyber innovation agency, to deliver the world’s first mobile quantum computer by 2027 in partnership with Austrian quantum architecture company ParityQC.
Additional reporting from James Riley.
Do you know more? Contact James Riley via Email.