Iceberg Quantum Launches With $2 Million Pre-seed, Teams up With PsiQuantum

Insider Brief

• Iceberg Quantum, founded by three University of Sydney PhD alumni, has raised $2 million in pre-seed funding led by Blackbird and partnered with PsiQuantum to develop low-overhead fault-tolerant architectures for photonic quantum computing.
• The startup leverages quantum LDPC codes to reduce the hardware overhead required for quantum error correction by over an order of magnitude, addressing a key bottleneck in building useful quantum computers.
• Funding will support the recruitment of a quantum architecture team focused on accelerating practical quantum computing, with PsiQuantum integrating Iceberg’s designs into its Brisbane-based platform.

PRESS RELEASE — Iceberg Quantum, a quantum computing architecture startup founded by three University of Sydney PhD alumni, has todayannounced it has raised $2 million in a pre-seed round led by Blackbird, with participation from UK-based LocalGlobe, and entered its first major partnership with PsiQuantum to apply its fault-tolerant architectures to PsiQuantum’s photonic platform.

Iceberg Quantum is tackling a critical challenge in realising useful quantum computing: the enormous hardware overhead required for quantum error correction. Because qubits are inherently noisier than transistors, useful quantum computers need fault-tolerant architectures that continuously detect and correct errors. Current approaches demand vast numbers of qubits to achieve this, but by leveraging breakthroughs in a new class of quantum error-correcting codes, Iceberg Quantum aims to cut that overhead by over an order of magnitude—accelerating the path to practical quantum computing.

The idea for Iceberg Quantum emerged while its three founders—Felix Thomsen, Larry Cohen, and Sam Smith—were pursuing their PhDs at the University of Sydney under the supervision of Prof. Stephen Bartlett, a world leader in quantum error correction who has since joined the company as an advisor. During his research, co-founder Larry Cohen developed the first general-purpose scheme for performing logic gates with quantum LDPC codes, revealing a dramatically more efficient path to fault-tolerant quantum computing.

“We are fast-approaching the useful quantum computing era and are proud to see Australians leading the charge,” said Michael Tolo, Partner at Blackbird. “Since the announcement that Brisbane will host the world’s first useful quantum computer, we have seen the next generation of local research talent emerge with the ambition to leave their mark. The technical progress that Felix, Larry and Sam have made over the last six months shows us that their approach could accelerate the timeline to useful quantum computing and push these systems to perform more valuable tasks, sooner. We had the privilege of watching the team grow since participating in our Foundry program last year, before the company had even been incorporated. We invest behind unique insights and velocity of progress, and this team has both in spades.” 

Recognising the potential of Iceberg Quantum’s approach, PsiQuantum—a leader in photonic quantum computing aiming to build the first utility-scale quantum computer in Brisbane by 2027—partnered with Iceberg to develop next-generation fault-tolerant architectures for its platform.

“Australia has long been a global leader in fault-tolerant quantum architectures, setting the direction for the field,” said Prof. Terry Rudolph, co-founder and Chief Architect at PsiQuantum. “Its next generation of talent will play a pivotal role in shaping the future of quantum computing. PsiQuantum is proud to partner with Iceberg Quantum, emerging from the world-leading group at the University of Sydney, to advance quantum theory and fault tolerance. Bridging cutting-edge research with real-world quantum systems is critical, and we look forward to seeing how this collaboration drives the next generation of fault-tolerant quantum architectures—including at our Brisbane facility.”

Iceberg Quantum will use its new funding to build a team of quantum architects, fully dedicated to designing LDPC-based architectures that make fault-tolerant quantum computing possible with far less overhead. By focusing entirely on this challenge, Iceberg aims to drive rapid progress and shorten the timeline for commercially useful quantum applications by years.

“Quantum computing has seen some exciting progress recently, but there’s still a lot of work to do to realise the potential of this technology,” said Felix Thomsen, co-founder and CEO of Iceberg . “We believe these LDPC-based fault-tolerant architectures are the key to making useful quantum computing practical—with far less overhead and much sooner than otherwise possible. We’re thrilled to take the first step toward realising that with this round and our partnership with PsiQuantum.”