Quantonation Announces First Closing of Its New €200 Million Fund Dedicated to Quantum Technologies

Insider Brief

• Quantonation Ventures announces the first closing of its second early-stage fund dedicated to Quantum Technologies, Quantonation II.
• The closing was set at at €70 million of the €200 million target.
• The firm’s first fund Quantonation I is considered the first ever quantum-focused fund and raised €91 million.

PRESS RELEASE — Quantonation Ventures announces the first closing of its second early-stage fund dedicated to Quantum Technologies, Quantonation II, at €70 million of the €200 million target. Quantonation is at the center of the emerging Quantum Tech industry, and is already investing globally in new companies from this second fund.

Physics has been, is and will be the fundamental operating system for world changing technology. While intimidating for some, we believe that innovations in physics, in computing and in quantum science are opportunities to build impactful companies.

In 2018, we began supporting founders in this deep-tech sector, who were working on transforming quantum science and deep physics into tangible devices and applications for sensing, communication, and computing. Our goal was to achieve performance levels that were not yet possible with existing technologies. Quantonation was founded on the belief that investing in this domain required a combination of scientific expertise, business acumen, and financial experience to accurately gauge the time and resources required to bring quantum innovation to the market.

Our first fund, Quantonation I (a 2021 vintage) – the first ever quantum-focused fund – raised €91 million beyond our original target, making investments in 27 companies worldwide, with two exits. We have invested in spin-outs from the most recognized academic ecosystems worldwide, like MIT, Ecole Polytechnique, Institut d’Optique, Oxford University, Waterloo University, University of Sherbrooke and more. We monitored over 600 startups developing Quantum Technologies over the last five years, constituting the field’s most significant deal flow. The fund has had strong performance, putting it in the top quartile of Venture Capital investors, even in a period where other venture investments are feeling a pullback.

We believe that the first era of pioneers in quantum computing is coming to an end. Advancements in hardware and software development are driving the quantum sector towards enterprise-grade use and a supply chain is developing to support faster iteration of new, scalable ideas. Many are starting to realize what has been a core part of our thesis: this is not a race to build the quantum computer. It is an interlocking ecosystem of products and applications across computing, networking, and sensing that will have a profound impact across many fields.

We are confident that an inflection point for Quantum Technologies is on the horizon, supported by our portfolio of industry leaders such as PASQAL, Nord Quantique, Multiverse, Qubit Pharmaceuticals, WeLinQ and QphoX, and the scientific progress made in labs.

Quantonation II follows our thesis from Quantonation I, investing from the pre-seed / seed stage. We are targeting 25 companies in our portfolio and, to accelerate the creation of new companies, are working with quantum venture studios worldwide. A US-based investment vehicle has been setup to make it easier for US investors to subscribe. The first two studios, QV Studio in Canada and Quantum Italia, have already been launched with our support; more projects are under development in Europe, the Asia-Pacific Region and the US. The scientific talent generating quantum and physics innovations is globally distributed and it is important to look globally to develop these innovations into large businesses.

After the first phase of building major quantum platforms, we expect to see more companies working on applications in health, climate change mitigation, security, energy, and high performance computing, and also on the supply chain that is starting to take shape with the transition to scale and industry-grade reliability.

The first closing at €70 million marks an essential milestone towards reaching our final target. It has allowed us to start investing from Quantonation II with four deals to date:

• Quantum Computing: Diraq (silicon spin qubits), our first investment in the promising Asia-Pacific region
• Materials: Pioniq (quantum materials for energy storage)
• Deep physics: Resolve stroke (high-resolution acoustic imaging) and Steerlight (Lidar)

Our investors (LPs) in Quantonation I have returned for Quantonation II. For instance, the Fonds National d’Amorçage 2 (the French Seed Fund), managed by Bpifrance on behalf of the French State, and Bradley M. Bloom (co-founder and former Managing Director of Berkshire Partners LLC).

Christophe Jurczak, Managing Partner, said, “This successful first closing shows, in addition to excellent funding rounds from our first portfolio, a remarkable dynamic in the quantum industry. With these resources, we can pursue scouting for the best quantum companies in the world and support a fantastic roster of founders in their entrepreneurial journey, including in new geographies for us. This will also be a great opportunity to expand the team and deepen our scientific expertise beyond our current focus. We’re looking forward to a bright future for the quantum industry.”

Bradley M. Bloom said, “I am delighted to be closely engaged with the Quantonation team who are using their collective expertise to identifying and accelerating some of the most promising innovations in this rapidly emerging sector that will affect all of us in the years ahead.”

For BCG partner and expert in Quantum Technologies Jean-François Bobier: “We released recently a report titled “Quantum Computing’s ‘ChatGPT Moment’ Could Be Sooner Than You Think”. With its first investments as early as 2018, Quantonation was right in time to catch the wave and is ideally positioned as the leading investor in Quantum Technologies to benefit from the new era that is opening for this sector”.

The fund Quantonation II is managed by Quantonation Ventures, headquartered in Paris and Boston, investing globally, and counts on the expertise of its team composed of Christophe Jurczak, Ph.D., Olivier Tonneau, Will Zeng, PhD, Jean-Gabriel Boinot-Tramoni, Pauline Boucher, PhD, Joseph Maillard, Alexandra Krivopavic, Raphaël Bodin, Eleonore de Rose and Charles Beigbeder.