Canberra-based Quantum Brilliance has attracted a $13 million investment from the National Reconstruction Fund as part of the larger Series A round that will help scale up new production laboratory in Victoria.
The Australian National University spin-out says money from the new investment would be used to build and refine the manufacturing facilities for growing the synthetic diamonds used in its quantum processors.
Quantum diamonds have a wide range of potential uses across quantum computing, sensing and networking. The mass deployability of diamond-based quantum processors, their small size, light weight and ability to function at room temperature give them a significant advantage over other quantum technologies in certain use cases.
The scaling up of its manufacturing operation will in part help Quantum Brilliance fulfill its landmark supply contract with the Oak Ridge National Laboratory – the famed US research facility born out of The Manhattan Project – which is contracted to jointly work on integrating quantum technology with existing high performance computing (HPC) architectures.
The NRF’s investment in Quantum Brilliance is the $15 billion fund’s second investment after it invested $40 million in a Queensland-based mining equipment, technology and services (METS) outfit Russell Mineral Equipment last month.
The investment comes seven months after the Albanese government caused a storm in the Australian quantum community when it partnered with the former Queensland state government to deliver a $940 million investment in California-based startup PsiQuantum.
NRF chairman Martijn Wilder said in a statement that the investment was a recognition of the groundbreaking work being done by Quantum Brilliance.
“They are at the forefront of technological advancements that have the potential to significantly accelerate the quantum technology revolution,” Mr Wilder said.
Quantum Brilliance uses synthetic diamonds to build quantum accelerators that do not require the near absolute zero temperature – they can operate at room temperature – and do not need complex laser systems that give other quantum computers a large physical footprint.
The technology has the potential to accelerate the adoption of quantum applications by bringing the technology to a wider range of industries.
The startup was founded by 2024 Prime Minister’s Prize for Science new innovator award winner Dr Andrew Horsley and Defence scientist Dr Marcus Doherty in 2019.
In September, the company announced that it would help deliver the world’s first mobile quantum computer for Germany’s cyber innovation agency in a joint $58 million procurement.
Quantum Brilliance is partnering with an Austrian infrastructure firm on the work, splitting one third of the €35 million contract from agency Cyberagentur, which funds high-risk and high-reward cyber research.
The new project is the German agency’s biggest yet and includes two other cohorts vying to deliver a quantum computer that can operate in the field rather than a data centre, with potential use for civil and defence.
In 2021, Quantum Brilliance $13 million in seed funding, co-led by Main Sequence and Shaun Wilson, one of the founders of QxBranch, a successful software startup which was acquired by US quantum company Rigetti in 2019.
Other investors in Quantum Brilliance includes Breakthrough Victoria and the ANU.
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