ECONOMY •

Quantum computers: French start-up Quandela raises €50

million
This funding, which comes less than a year after the $100 million raised by its competitor
Pasqal, illustrates the advances made by this technology.

By Olivier Pinaud
Published on November 7, 2023, at 6:00 pm (Paris), updated on November 7, 2023, at
6:02 pm • 3 min.

Subscribers only

The Quandela team QUANDELA

The promise of quantum computing is increasingly reflected in the figures. Quandela, one of the
French start-ups involved in the manufacture of these new-generation supercomputers, announced
on Tuesday, November 7, that it had secured €50 million in funding. The new funds come in addition
to the first €15 million raised in 2021. This amount, which makes the deal one of the year's 15 largest
rounds of funding for a French start-up, confirms the growing appeal of quantum computing to
investors. In January, Pasqal, one of Quandela's competitors, raised €100 million for its second
funding round just a year and a half after an initial round of €25 million.

Of this amount, €9.5 million, from the "First Factory" initiative of the France 2030 state investment
plan, will pay for the Quandela factory in Massy (in the Paris region), inaugurated in June, from which
Europe's very first quantum computer has just been delivered to a private industrial customer. It has
been installed in a data center belonging to the French OVHcloud group, which can then rent out its
computing capacity to its own customers.

Read more What exactly is superconductivity?

The balance of €50 million was paid by Quandela's four historical shareholders: Bpifrance and the
Quantonation, Omnes and Serena funds. Crédit Mutuel Innovation took advantage of the transaction
to acquire a stake in Quandela. Lastly, Europe, through the European Innovation Council fund, made a
contribution, "giving Quandela an international dimension," according to Niccolo Somaschi, one of
Quandela's three founders and current chief technology officer.

Overseas strategies

In addition to financing the ramp-up of production at the Massy plant (Quandela plans to assemble
three new machines in 2024), the aim of this second round of funding since the company was
founded in 2017 is also to give it a foothold abroad, in countries like South Korea and Canada, where
national quantum plans have been launched.

Subsequently, Quandela is not ruling out options in the United States. "The entry barrier there is high
but we think there's one trick left to play. We're going to start working on a dedicated strategy,"
explained Somaschi. In his opinion "France has a high-quality quantum ecosystem, with excellent
researchers and entrepreneurs. We shouldn't have any complications." The international aura of Alain
Aspect, winner of the 2022 Nobel Prize in Physics for his work on quantum physics, also lends
credibility to French expertise in this field. He is one of the co-founders of Pasqal and a member of
Quandela's scientific advisory board.
You have 45% of this article left to read. The rest is for subscribers only.